Blank Points
by sukura123
Summary: We were there. We became L'cie. We fought their battles. We toppled the Sanctum, and changed our fates. This is the story of Raven and I. The story that no one knows, but hopefully won't forget. Contains mild language.
1. Chapter One: Krystal

This story is being written by two pen names: Sukura123, who will be writing as the character Krystal, and BluEyedLightning, who will be writing as Raven. We take turns writing each chapter, beginning with Krystal.

**Disclaimer: We do not own any part of Final Fantasy 13. This is mainly for entertainment purposes only.**

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><p>Friday, finally. Nursing class couldn't be more of a bore. It was time to visit my best friend, Raven. As I was walking, I began to reminisce. It still amazes me how we've gotten this far, when she looked like she would punch my lights out back then. How did we ever become friends? Well, we had karate classes together, and I was the new kid, 16 at the time. During lessons I noticed how she was incredibly strong and had been doing this longer than I have. None of our classmates would want to face her, including the boys. It was like she had ease with everything. I made sure I didn't volunteer to fight her, let alone fight at all. The reason I was in karate class was because my mom suggested I do it since I was "weak." I believed it, but I wanted to prove her wrong. So one day I had volunteered to fight this kid named Jason. He was around six feet tall and his arms were as thick as sausages. I was scared but determined to beat him. Filled with adrenaline, before he could even land a hit on me, I kicked him as hard as I could, and he landed on the ground. I heard cheers around me and I immediately felt shy. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Raven. She gave me a look of approval, and I smiled. We became friends right after that day.<p>

As I neared Raven's house, I noticed that her parents weren't home, which meant we had the house to ourselves for the evening. I knocked on the front door and Raven answered a minute later. I walked in just like I owned the place and sat down on a nearby chair and crossed my legs like I usually do.

"Hey Raven, sup?" I asked while glancing around her living room. I could tell she had the area set up for total videogame night.

"Nothing but the ceiling Krystal," she replied dully, and I chuckled. "Do you want anything to snack on?"

"Hmm, how about a grape faygo pop and a bag on funyuns please." I said.

She nodded and left to the kitchen to get our snacks and pops. I went toward her big screen TV and saw that she had the newest Tekken game. Even though I didn't really know a thing about it, I had played it once a while back. Luckily, I brought a game of my own we could play afterwards.

I sat down in the middle of living room on the plush carpet. Raven came and sat a few feet away and put our snacks in the middle.

"Thanks" I smiled at her. "I see you have Tekken out, let's play. I bet I could kick your ass," I joked. Yeah, I was being a bit cocky, and not to mention my skills in this game are really rusty, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't try.

Raven gave me a challenging smirk and responded, "Bring. It. On!" She loaded up the PS3 and handed me controller. I picked a the character, alisa, because I loved her boots. Raven picked some macho guy. And so our game began.


	2. Chapter Two: Raven

This chapter was written by BluEyedLightning in the view of the character, Raven.

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><p>Fuck. She beat me again. Last time I am using Paul Phoenix again. I look at my best and basically only friend, Krystal. She smiles innocently and says, "You didn't do too bad, Raven. How about we play a different game?"<p>

I almost scowled. She was so positive and optimistic. If she weren't my best friend, I would be walking away right now.

I nodded. Though I don't mind losing a game, I did mind losing five times in a row.

"What do you have in mind?" I ask skeptically.

Krystal takes out a copy of Final Fantasy 13. My heart jumps, but just a little, at the thought of trying it out.

"I hear great things about it," Krystal told me as she popped in the disc.

"Yeah, I also hear it's linear as fuck," I muttered.

Krystal frowns but says nothing. Over the years she has learned to ignore my negative comments - probably why we are still friends.

"Do you want to play or should I?" Krystal asks as she sits next to me on the couch.

I shrug and say, "Well, since you are clearly better at games than me, you can play first."

Krystal giggles and grabs the PS3 controller. We both watch the opening scene, which was pretty badass. Just as the pink-haired character punches the man with the chocobo in his afro, the whole room turns black.

Or maybe I just passed out.

I open my eyes. The first thing I see is the woman with the pink hair glaring down at me.

Wait – that wasn't right.

"What the hell?" I groan as I squinted at the person before me.

"I don't have time for this," the woman says with a hint of anger, and runs in the opposite direction of me.

Don't have time for what?

I look around me. The place looked freakishly like the game Krystal had just been playing. There was the huge train that crashed into some magnetic field, and I was pretty sure I just saw that woman who singlehandedly took on a group of soldiers with guns, _and_ punched a man in the face.

"Are you seeing this?" I ask Krystal. Then I realize I haven't heard her since I landed here. She was gone.

Pacing back and forth frantically, and coming to the conclusion that I was now in a fucking video game, I let out a couple of obscenities. Then, after breathing in deeply, I begin planning.

"I guess I should go after – what was her name again?" I ask myself. "Oh yes, Lightning."

I began walking.


	3. Chapter Three: New Friends or Enemies?

I didn't open my eyes yet but from the sound of commands being yelled, gunshots ringing in my ears, and screams all around me, I wanted them to stay shut. I felt my back against a hard, dry surface. Slowly, I opened my eyes to get a view of my surroundings. I didn't like what I saw one bit.

People were running around frantically and screaming their heads off. In the distance some guy in a long white or cream looking overcoat and blonde hair was giving orders and trying to eliminate the bad guys. While looking around at all the madness, I didn't realize a hand being stretched out to offer me a hand to stand up. The figure had bright green eyes and fiery orange hair in two pigtails. I zoned out.

"Heellllooooo, anyway one home?" she asked in a childlike voice.

"Huh, oh um, yeah," I took her hand and stood up while dusting myself off. "Um hi, my name is Krystal and-" I just registered that this girl in front of me was none other than Vanille. My eyes widened and I exclaimed, "Holy crap your V-!" I shut my mouth because Vanille looked confused.

"Hey Krsytal, my name's Vanille!" Vanille's voice was cheerful and kind. I waved. "Welcome to Cocoon!"

I looked around more closely at my surroundings and didn't see Raven anywhere. I hoped she was okay, but I knew she could handle herself well. While looking down I noticed that I wasn't in my dark blue skinny jeans or my white beater. I had on Alisa's white boots from Tekken 6 and purple knee highs. And a white short ruffle dress with a light gray pattern of spirals made of sparkles at the bottom that went to my mid thighs. My outfit rocked! My light brown hair was in the same style, straight down to the middle of my back with a few random curls here and there. While still gushing over my cute outfit, Vanille snapped me back into reality.

"Hey girl you okay?" She asked. Dang her accent sound kind of Australian but cool. "Yes, sorry about that." She pointed to a group of people in robes that were huddled on the ground. She sat next to a small child, I new this kid was Hope. She motioned me to joined them. I slowly walked over there, and sat down. I felt everyone's eye's on me and instantly looked at a interesting mark on the pavement. I was a very shy person and couldn't help it.

Vanille called my name and introduced me to Hope saying that I fell out of the sky or something like that. Suddenly, Snow appeared in front of us and asked if any of us would help fight the Psicom guys. After a moment a woman spoke up and Snow gave her an "are you sure?" look. She nodded. I noticed Hope looked really worried, probably because the woman was his mom.

I decided that I should step in too and try to help. Maybe I might be able to save her, wonder what that might do to the course of the game. Hope looked up to his mom very much. After grabbing an awesome looking gun, Hope's mom ran back and hugged her son with all her might. As soon as she left, I got up and walked on over to Snow. I had a look a determination on my face.

Snow handed me a gun anyway and thanked me for my support. How hard could this be?


	4. Chapter Four: Meeting Lightning

After running for what seemed to be hours, I caught up to Lightning. When I saw her, I didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. With her she had a sword that turned into a gun, and she clearly knew how to use it.

"Um, hi," I spoke out after watching her scan the area before her. She didn't seem to hear me, or she just ignored me because she kept looking around her, as if sensing danger.

"We're in the middle of a battlefield, and you dare strike up a conversation?" she suddenly growls, not even looking at me.

"Hey, I'm just wondering what the hell is going on," I snap back angrily. My fists were clenched and I was ready to punch Lightning in the face, though I hesitated when she turned around to face me.

She had blue eyes that pierced my skull and a disapproving frown on her face. She opened her mouth and said, "Like I said before, I don't have time for this. All I know is that you landed right in front of me out of nowhere. A lot of weird stuff has been happening lately, so I'm not one to think twice about your situation." She took a step forward and added, "Oh, and I don't care."

I glared back at her, ready for a fight. She was a cold bitch but I couldn't help but admire her. She was strong-willed and capable of fighting, plus able to make someone feel like a total idiot.

I softened up a little and asked, "Well, what do you care about then?"

She turned around again, and I didn't expect an answer.

"My sister, Serah," she quietly said.

I walked up to her to face her. She had a pained look on her face and I couldn't help but feel bad. Her despaired look quickly changed to fury when she saw me looking at her.

"I don't know why I'm telling you this. Go home," she said and began walking again. I sighed and put one hand on my hip. The texture felt wrong for jeans, so I looked down. I saw that I wasn't wearing the jeans I had been wearing earlier or the white t-shirt. Instead, I was wearing a black mini skirt and a red halter top with spaghetti straps underneath a black leather jacket. On my feet were black boots that replaced my usual red sneakers.

"How the fuck did I not notice this before," I groaned to myself. My usual attire did not consist of what I was wearing now.

"Hey, have you seen a woman with pink hair?"

I swirled around to see the man with the baby chocobo in his afro. I believe his name was Sazh, or something.

"Yeah, she ran off ahead," I answered. I then smirked and said, "Didn't she knock you on the ground or something?"

Sazh froze, scratched his head, and then laughed. He looked embarrassed.

"Yeah, you saw that huh? Crazy woman was going to leave without me!"

"She tends to do that a lot," I reply wryly.

I started walking forward when three soldiers with guns and two dog-looking creatures pounced in front of me.

"Stop!" one of them yelled with his gun pointed right at my face.

"Why?" I challenged and readied myself against whatever that was going to happen to me.

"Don't be reckless," Sazh quickly said to me. "It's five against two, and only one of us is armed!" He dropped his two pistols and raised his hands up in surrender.

Typical.

Then suddenly Lightning jumped into the scene with gunblade blazing. She one-shot killed the two beasts and slashed her way through the three soldiers as if they were made out of thread.

"Nice," I commented and grinned. I put out my hand for a high five, and then remembered that I was in a video game, and these characters probably never heard of a high five.

"Foolish to stay here," Lightning snapped. She then studied me and added, "You don't even look like a soldier or part of the resistance. Who are you?"

"Oh, so now you want to make conversation?" I asked, feeling frustrated.

Sazh picked up his weapons that he cowardly abandoned and placed himself between us, as if expecting a fight.

"Ladies, please, let's just do this somewhere else. I thought we were on a mission?"

Lightning scowled at him and responded, "You and I are done working together. I do this on my own from now on." She holstered her weapon and started to stride away.

Sazh sighed and hung his head. His baby chocobo flew in front of him and looked at him questioningly.

"Cute," I muttered, and ran after Lightning. Before I could even say a word to her, some dude in heavy armor and a spiked stick as a weapon approached us. He came along with two other soldiers but this one was clearly the leader.

"Weapons down, I'd hate for this to turn ugly," he sneered as he slowly walked towards us.

"Pretty sure you're going to kill us anyway," I replied.

"Whoa, let's just do what he says," Sazh said fearfully.

"Not a chance," Lightning said as she took out her weapon. She then said to me, "You want to me happy? Make yourself useful and fight."

"I didn't know you knew what that word meant," I muttered under my breath, but crouched in a fighting position, arms and fists ready to hit three men with guns.

There was no way in hell I was going to survive this.


	5. Chapter Five: Battles and Consequences

_Written by me sukura123_

Chapter Five: Battles and Consequences

Snow led Hope's mom and I down the path which resembled something like a highway. My brown eyes were scanning the area the whole time while running. He introduced us to his teammates Gadot and Lebreau. We ran passed a blocky looking area, and slid through a tight space. This is where encountered our first battle.

The fight ended in only a matter of seconds - Snow did most of the work using his fists. We encountered several more battles as we made our way to wherever our destination was. Using a gun was pretty easy for me. I was a natural. It was nice to be a part of a cool team. I quickly learned that Hope's mom was called Nora. She proved herself to be a very strong woman.

We passed a floating ball thing. I reached out to touch it and it stopped spinning and opened up for me. I found a bangle.

We passed several people who either had on normal clothes or in the same robes as Vanille and Hope. They looked so sad, like there was no room for hope or anything positive.

"Here Nora, you can have this." I said giving the bracelet to her. She smiled and thanked me and we caught up to Snow. I understood that he was the "hero" type person and thought he could take on the world. He was a cool guy though, always looking out for Nora and his friends.

Striking up a conversation, Snow asked me, "So your name is…?"

"Krystal, and Vanille said I fell from the sky or whatever."

Snow raised an eyebrow. "Okay. Well, it's nice to meet you. Considering the circumstances, this isn't really the best time to chat. Let's get moving you two." He said.

In the distance I saw a solider standing on a pillar shouting orders. "Mobilize the beta force. Put down the resistance." Then he aimed his gun in the air and fired a few shots as if he was signaling someone.

The sound of an airplane or hovercraft caught my attention. It was carrying a rather large beast. It was called Beta Behemoth. It jumped down toward the surface and landed a few feet away from us. Calling it big was an understatement, it had its teeth bared and its glowing red eyes frightened me a bit.

I started to inch back a little bit, when Snow said. "Heroes don't run from fights!" His tone was every bit of confident and bravery to the max. He did his signature punching- his- hands- together- thing.

I put on a brave face. _Right!_ I thought to myself. Nora had the same level of confidence as Snow. The beast stood up and was tall as hell. _What the-_ I began to think, I had stopped due to shock. And it had the nerve to charge at us!

The battle began. The beast went first and swiped at us with its huge claws. We all staggered back from the blow. Lucky for me, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be.

"Don't worry ladies, we can do this!" Snow said recovering instantly and landing a few good punches here and there. Nora and I were firing our guns constantly trying to help. With our combined teamwork, the behemoth was defeated. I breathed a sigh of relief.

We came into an all-out war shoot out. Cilvilians were shooting at the PSIcom guys. Snow's friend Gadot stepped in and eliminated a few of them. Meanwhile, Nora, Snow and I crouched down behind the resistance group.

All of a sudden a hovorcraft rounded in front of all of us and began shooting. The pounding of bullets hit most of the resistance force in their bodies and sent them to their deaths. I turned my head away and closed my eyes, it was horrible.

Gadot looked toward Snow and yelled, "Snow! We got trouble!"

Snow looked around frantically or shook his head and said, "Yeah, no kidding."

He turned towards Nora and I, we were still crouched down. "Stay here." He ran off towards the gun in the middle of area. I turned my head to look at Snow as he dived forward to try and retrieve the gun.

He missed and looked kinda pissed. Snow looked in front of him and in the middle of hovercraft was a humongous gun aimed at him. Utter defeat was Snow's facial expression.

"Snow!" I called out to him. He closed his eyes just as the gun was about to fire.

The hovercraft was hit by a small rocket and lost its balance. Snow opened his eyes and looked back to see Nora. He knew she saved him, and silently thanked her.

"I told you didn't I?" She reached down and gave Snow a helping hand. "Moms are tough." She gave him a small smile.

After helping him up, I looked up and saw the hovercraft getting ready to shoot again.

"Nora, Snow, LOOK OUT!" I yelled running over there.

The blow came fast and hard, creating an explosion behind Nora. Because of its great force, it caused her to fall forward, I had to sheild my eyes from the brightness it radiated.

After I opened them, out of the corner of my eye, I saw two figures on the other side of the area. They both gasped.

I looked around literally everywhere and called out, "Nora, Snow?"

To my relief, she landed on Snow, and he gently eased her up and held her. I was instantly at their side. I saw Snow look up and shake his head in disbelief. I followed his gaze.

_Oh my god! _I thought. Part of the brigde was slanted downward in front of us; we had no way of access to the other side.

People were trapped and falling to their deaths. I felt tears starting to form in my eyes. As the section of the bridge began to break even further to form a ninety degree angle, people fell into what looked like a bottomless pit of doom. The part of the bridge we were on lurched forward and we all began to slide off. Snow held onto Nora with one hand, and the other was strongly gripped to broken rail that was sticking out. I had my hands gripped on Nora's ankles.

Nora woke up instantly, quickly realizing the situation, she said, "Get him home...please..." she pleaded. She also noticed me still hanging off her ankles.

Snow was struggling to keep his grip. "Hold on." he said. Nora gave a sweet smile, and instantly tried to get out of his grip. Snow had a look a determination on his face as he tried to somehow pull us both up.

"Woah! Nora, it doesn't have to end like this!" I cried. I knew Snow was gonna lose his grip soon, but Nora would go first.

She looked at me and gave me the same smile. "It's alright Krsytal, but what you need to do is reach for Snow's ankles. Please look out for Hope." She clearly wasn't thinking straight in this situation. I mean how the heck was I supposed to do that.

"You're prepared to face death...," I already knew there was nothing I could do to prevent her or hell even all of our deaths, but I still had to try. "I-I'll do my best." I said choking back tears.

I prayed Raven was in a better situation than I was. As soon as I attempted to move one hand, Snow lost his grip, my brown eyes widened with fear and both Nora and I fell.

_Please review, thank you! _


	6. Chapter Six: First Encounter

Before I could even take a step forward, one of the PSICOM soldiers rushed at me and punched me in the face. Though it hurt, I was grateful he didn't shoot me instead.

Lightning was already taking care of the big guy, and Sazh was doing some weird body movement that made it look like he was dancing idiotically.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him after slowly and painfully getting back to my feet.

"This is my ready stance!" Sazh exclaimed. He lifted up one leg and with his right arm, he shot his pistol at one of the soldiers.

"This isn't bowling!" I snapped with frustration, but decided to focus more on my own battle. The soldier that had punched me was readying his gun to shoot me. I quickly charged at him and thrust my fist in his face, for payback. It was too late to realize that he was wearing metal armor and that bone contacting with metal results in severe agony and the sudden urge to cry like a baby.

"Nice move," I heard Lightning sarcastically say. I then felt embarrassed because I hadn't noticed she was watching me fail pitifully.

"Maybe if I had a weapon," I pathetically replied. I shook my hand to ease the pain and this time kicked the soldier in the groin, who then crumbled to the ground. "Yeah! That's how we do it back where I live."

After two soldiers fell, I grabbed one of their guns, and then aimed it at the big guy. The leader was crouched in a fetal position and panting heavily. Lightning had done massive damage to him, something the bastard hadn't expected.

"This isn't over," the enforcer groaned as he stumbled backwards in retreat.

I grinned and said, "I've always wanted to say this, but yeah, it's so over." Then, finger itching to pull the trigger, I prepared to end his life when Lightning ran forward, jumped a little bit in the air with weapon drawn, and did a full 360 on him. Our remaining opponent finally faded away, indicating that he was defeated.

I lowered my weapon and sighed with disappointment. "I was looking forward to using this."

Lightning scoffed and began walking away, as usual. I decided to, again, follow her, and Sazh tagged along. We walked for a few minutes in awkward silence, despite the sounds of gunfire and screams of civilians and soldiers. It was like we had our own little bubble that protected us from the rest of this insane world.

"So soldier, what's your angle?" Sazh asked Lightning.

Lightning turned to face him, then slowly turned her head away and completely ignored his question. Sazh fiddled around with some device and asked if it was "classified" and said something about quitting. By then I was spaced out and instead examined my gun.

"The Pulse Fal'cie," Lightning quietly answered.

I looked back at the two and noticed that Sazh looked taken back.

"What's that?" I asked, my interest slowly rising because of Sazh's dumbstruck look. Both of them ignored me and instead stared, or rather glared, at each other.

"Still happy you tagged along?" Lightning asked. As she went up to the device Sazh had been fiddling with earlier, Sazh muttered something that I didn't quite hear. Then, Lightning resumed walking without waiting for us.

I quickly glanced at Sazh questioningly, and then looked ahead of me. A huge floating mechanical ship slowly descended in front of us.

"Are we getting on that?" I nervously asked. I didn't like flying, let alone on something that was from a video game.

"We sure are," Lightning answered, to my surprise. She actually grinned at me and added, "Are you scared?"

"Nope," I said, and then gulped.

Lightning glared, scowled, as per usual, and said, "You're a terrible liar," and then walked on the ship.

"And you're a bitch," I retorted, but under my breath.

"I heard that," Sazh quietly said to me, but gave me a wink and followed Lightning.

Sighing with defeat because I had nowhere else to go, I followed both of them like an obedient dog.


	7. Chapter Seven: Afterwards

Written by sukura123. Enjoy!

Chapter 7: Afterwards

While still falling towards my possible death, I heard a cry of "NOOOO!" from Hope. Snow yelled his anger as well. I was wondering weather, he would save me or not.

Suddenly, the beam broke and he fell too. Nora I knew fully well was not going to survive. I started to scream, and had flashbacks of the good times in my life including my best friend Raven.

The last thing I felt was a pair of strong arms that were wrapped around me before I blacked out.

With me being out of it, Snow had to somehow save us both. He wasn't ready to give up yet. Right before we hit the pavement, he put me in front on his chest and took the full force of the fall.

A few minutes later he opened his eyes, he checked that he could still move, and he felt okay, except for the fact of a major migrane later…

He lifted me off of his chest, and made sure I was okay, which thankfully I was thanks to him.

"Krystal? Krystal wake up!" he urged. He shook me gently by the shoulders. I came to.

"Wha…Snow! We aren't dead?" I asked. He grinned and shook his head.

"Hey, girl, we are survivors." He held his hand out and I took it to get back on my feet. I looked up to see a big ass spaceship with a bunch of lasers. It was making some anouncement about people and Cocoon.

Snow got to his feet, and looked up at the big thing. He stumbled foward, "Serah!" He wasn't about to give up finding her.

"Well, um, thanks for saving me." I said shyly. How the hell he survived that fall, I didn't know and guess I never will. He just smiled again, and began to check his surroundings. He saw his friend Gadot a few feet away and ran over there. He lifted him up halfway.

"Come on. Come on!" Snow exclaimed. When Gadot didn't respond, Snow kinda slapped him a few times.

Gadot held his arm in pain. He looked around and seen the dead bodies littered on the floor in front of him. He instantly become worried, "What about the others?" he asked.

Snow sighed heavily. "They didn't die! They couldn't have died!" Gadot panicked.

"Of course not!" Snow knew his friends were tough to take down. Gadot got up and noticed Snow worrying about something.

"Get a grip man! What's wrong with you?" Gadot aked.

"Get him home"...Get who home?" He asked no one in particular.

I spoke up. "Hope, thats her son." There was a rumble on the ground beneath us. Apparently, ship pilots don't know how to fly that well... While I was lost in thought, Snow gave Godat a gun and he pointed it at me and Snow.

"What are you doing?" Snow asked getting in between me and the gun.

"So, what are you afraid of huh? Your supposed to be the hero." What the hell was Gadot's problem? He smirked and then gave a smile and said, "She's waiting there ani't she? Your bride-to-be".

"Come on Snow, lets move out." I said leading the way. Gadot grabbed my shoulder to stop me from going further because of the guards possibly ahead.

We began to walk when Snow said, "How could they?"

"Stop that sulkin and get your game face on!" Gadot exclaimed. I chucked in response. _Way to lighten up the mood Gadot _I thought.

We ran up to a pack of dogs and PSICOM soilders and engaged in battle. Snow threw a lot of granades, and I just fired away, I would need another gun soon though, my ammo was getting super low.

We ran further and finally our destination. We were gonna steal those flying cycles. Snow peaked around the corner to see how many PSICOM soilders there were. "On my count." He said. Gadot and I nodded.

On Snow's command, Gadot stepped out and fired a bunch a shots while Snow and I ran out to take on the rest. Gadot got in one. Snow went toward the other one and motioned me over there.

"Snow, these look like they can only take one person."

"Well, I'm not gonna leave you here, so hop abroad." I took his hand and somehow, we both fitted in the seat together. The boys decided to have a race without informing me about it.

As soon as we landed, I pushed Snow off hard. "What the hell man? No word of warning?"

"Heh heh, sorry about that Krystal, its an old habit." Snow rubbed the back of his head. "Hey guys its us, we are here!" We met up with Snow's other teammates. While Snow was chatting with his friends. I saw Vanille and Hope in the back. Hope seemed upset, and he looked at Snow like what happened was all his fault.

"Hey!" I heard Vanille yell, but she was cutt off by the roar of Gadot's engine. Snow was heading somewhere else to check on other people. I was fine staying behind with the others. They were cool. I ran back there with Hope and Vanille who was telling Snow to wait.

"Hey guys, sup?"

Vanille answered, "Hope had something to say to Snow. But he's gone." She frowned. Hope didn't say anything. Vanille and I went to the other hoverbike, and just messed around till Hope came up.

"You okay?" Vanille asked Hope. I feel bad for him, he did lose his mom and saw our predicament.

"I wanna tell him. Its just that-" Hope grabbed her arm. An idea popped in her head, and I automatically knew what she was thinking.

"Hey, do you know how to fly this?" Vanille asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Vanille was so happy that she shook Hopes hands up and down really fast. She turned him around and pushed him toward the hoverbike.

"Come on Krsytal, it'll be fun." Vanille said with a twinkle in her eye.

"Umm...I guess. Its gonna be a tight squeeze though." I got in behind Vanille who was behind Snow. _Snow is gonna kill us. _


	8. Chapter Eight: First Sighting

Chapter 8: First Sightning

If there was one thing I absolutely hated, it was flying. Lightning, Sazh, and I were flying on the large hovercraft or whatever the hell it was, for, thankfully, just about ten minutes. As Sazh and Lightning were exchanging a few words, all which consisted of death and some purge, I was busy keeping my eyes clenched together and my hands gripped on a part of the flying ship.

"Orders say shoot, would you pull the trigger?" Sazh asked Lightning. He seemed quite disgusted with her after their little conversation.

After Lightning ignored him, Sazh added, "Fine, forget I asked."

Tuning in and out of their talk, I opened my eyes to see my surroundings. It was black as night outside, besides the illuminating green lights coming out of wherever this shithole was. A few small hovercrafts whizzed by and I could still hear gunshots coming from both resistance and the so-called "Purge." A flying robot suddenly appeared in front of me, and I couldn't help but shriek in alarm.

"Hey, we're under attack!" I exclaimed to my bickering partners.

"Wait – what?" Lightning whispered as she somehow changed her gunblade into the blade part and got ready to fight the weird ass thing.

"I've got this," I announced with an abundance of surprising courage. I gripped my precious automatic assault rifle, and walked over to Lightning who was already prepared to take down the robot on her own.

"Don't slow me down," Lightning said to me.

There goes my already low self-esteem.

I looked over at Sazh, who was, again, bouncing up and down with his two pistols in his hands. I mentally facepalmed, then focused on the target.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A Myrmidon," Lightning replied. "They're with the Purge."

"Yeah, no kidding," I responded.

To make things short, Lightning landed most of the blows, even though Sazh and I had the firepower to take down a small army, whereas Lightning had the sword.

The gaming world still continues to amaze me with their logic.

The huge ship came to a halt after we defeated the Myrmidon. The three of us glanced ahead and saw an amazing sight. In the green lit sky was a monstrous looking statue or shrine of some sort. It was being slowly put on the ground as if to say "Back off, fools." During this, a voice rang out warning the resistance that if they don't surrender, then they are basically screwed.

"Just what you were looking for," Sazh said quietly to Lightning.

Lightning nodded. "Yeah, right in there."

"The Pulse fal'cie. Huh," Sazh stated.

"Wonderful," I muttered sarcastically. How exactly does this game go? I silently wished I had played the game before I was sucked into this suck fest.

After Sazh asked Lightning a few questions concerning the fal'cie, Lightning walked to the edge of platform we were on and looked down. She then said, "Time to jump."

Both Sazh and I had the same reaction. We exclaimed, "What?" Before we could get a reasonable response, Lightning had already jumped.

"She's crazy!" I yelled and ran to the edge. I looked down to see that Lightning had actually landed smoothly on her feet thanks to some gravitational device. "This would be possible if you had given each one of us that thingy you have," I shouted down to her.

She proceeded to ignore me but instead grinned at our stupidity.

"Damn," Sazh said in response to her amazing acrobatics. "If she can do it, then so can we."

I couldn't tell if he was talking to me or his adorable baby chocobo, but his words gave me the confidence that I needed.

"Let's do this," I replied. "You want to go first?" It was more of a suggestion than a question.

"Ladies first," Sazh smirked at me.

I glared at him, but swallowed back my fear and took a, rather weak, leap of faith. I landed on the purple gravity thing that Lightning had so nicely left for us. I sighed with relief.

"Thanks," I said to her.

"To be honest, I didn't know my device would last that long," Lightning replied. She actually sounded disappointed I had survived.

"Oh."

Instead of jumping down, Sazh began to pathetically climb down. It was a pitiful sight. Both Lightning and I gawked at him and grinned with amusement. Sazh eventually awkwardly fell and survived, and again Lightning looked disappointed.

"Let's go," Lightning declared, already running.

Sazh and I, with no other choice, ran after her, despite our seemingly inevitable doom.


	9. Chapter Nine: Concerns

**NOTE: THIS IS REALLY CHAPTER NINE, NOT TEN. Sorry about the confusion.**

Written by sukura123. Thank you for favoring this story and even added it to your story alert too. Please review as well! :)

**Chapter Nine: Concerns**

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><p>Right before we took off, I heard Gadot shouting at us but that was drowned out by the engine. <em>Crap he's gonna be pissed too<em>. I sweatdropped. Vanille screamed as we took off super fast.

Vanille looked at the big greenish thing and was in deep thought. "Vanille, are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah. Hope look out!" She exclaimed.

We all screamed because of the landed a few feet away from the hoverbike. Vanille was on her stomach, Hope head was on her back, and I landed on my back with my legs on Hope's back.

"Ouch, I'm sorry Hope, but your driving sucks." I said as I stood up and dusted my self off. He shrugged and hurridley got himself of Vanille.

"That was close. Now where is the-" Vanille said while her eyes landed on the hover bike. We checked out our surroundings. _Where the hell are we? _

"Guess its just us." Vanille said while making some weird sign with her fingers.

"What did you think? Even soldiers know not to go near the fal'Cie." Hope continued with his head still down. "You become a Pulse l'Cie and your finished."

"What the fal'Cie and a Pulse l'Cie?" I asked.

Hope answered my question, "Basically servents of Pulse l'Cie. Its not something you wanna do."

"Sound like it sucks to me. Guess we might as well get moving..." I said walking towards the stairs.

"Oh! Check this out!" Vanille climbed a stone pillar and grabbed something that looked like deer antlers. _What the heck is she gonna do with that?_

While Vanille was showing off her weapon or whatever it was. A panther robot jumped down from a pillar and growled at us. Vanille readied her weapon and Hope got a yellow boomerang out of nowhere. I stood next to Vanille and I still had my gun from before.

Vanille took the first couple hits, Hope went next, and I finished it off. "Nice work guys." I complimented. I threw my gun on the ground, I was out of ammo.

We ran all over the area, battling creature after creature. My karate skills came in handy, although my legs stung a bit from kicking several panther robots.

While scanning the area further, I heard Hope and Vanille talking about Pulse and fal'Cie. I walked over to them.

Vanille put on a frustrated face, "Pulse fal'Cie and l'Cie are bad news. That's why Cocoon kicked them out. Live too close to the fal'Cie, one way ticket to pulse. That's the purge in a nutsell."

"If they catch us here, they'll purge us too and then-" Hope started. Vanille put a finger to her chin in thought.

"What's your problem?" She cut him off. To me Hope seemed a bit whiney...

"What's my-Pulse is hell on Earth!" He seemed really frustrated and upset. Vanille and I went over there and hugged him.

"Its gonna be okay Hope." I said giving him a warm smile. Vanille nodded her head. Hope pushed us away and muttered "get off me".

I put my hands on my hips in annoyance. "Okay Hope, you need to take a chill pill and-" I was cut off by Snow shouting about some girl named Serah. Oh no, what if he finds us! Oh well.

We just sat around bored to death when we heard, "Hang on baby, your hero's on the way." A staircase rose up in front of us.

"He _is_ here. Calling himself a hero." Hope was super mad, but we didn't say anything. A red symbol that covered a hidden door also disappeared. I started heading towards the door, when Vanille and Hope caught up with me.

We fought even more battles and even found a few items and money or gil as they call it. My leg and hands were freakin sore. We went through the hall where the red symbol had been.

"Woah" Hope said. Vanille and I gasped in awe of the area around us. I loved the sparkly dots that floated randomly in the air. How pretty. Sadly a horrible yell ruined the peace.

We looked over and saw these black scrawgly monsters with red orbs on there chests coming towards us from all sides. Hope gasped and backed up in fear.

"What are they?" I asked. We were all back to back in a circle.

"Cie'th! l'Cie who failed!" Vanille said. Her voice sounded sad. "This is what happens- when the l'Cie don't complete their Focus the fal'Cie gave them."

"Focus?" I asked. I didn't get an answer. The Cie'th were too close for comfort. With a yell, and pretty much running a Cie'th over, Snow came. Thank goodness too.

"Lets even these odds!" The battle began. And jeez these things took a while to take down. While everyone else did the usual, I used my legs to round house kick the creatures. Then, I jumped on the red orbs and tried to crush it with all my might. Finally, it ended.

Hope fell on his hands and knees out of exhaustion, Vanille put her hands on her knees, and I just drew in some deep breaths and sat down.

"How did you guys get here? You need to leave." Snow said. Vanille quickly glanced at Hope and let out a nervous laugh. "Just find somewhere to hide, I'm going to get Serah and then we can all leave together. You'll be home in time for dinner."

"Wait!, He needs to say something." Vanille shouted trying to stop Snow.

"Who's Serah?" I asked.

"My soon to be wife. She is a Pulse l'Cie." I saw Vanille put her hands toward her mouth and I heard a mumbled, "Oh no." Snow continued talking.

"What's wrong with you!" yelled Hope. _Crap here it comes._ "Why do you wanna help a l'Cie? There the enemy! How could you save a l'Cie and not...and not..." I could tell Hope was close to tears, he angrily stomped his foot on the ground and said, "That's insane!"

"Probably" Snow answered. He rubbed the back of his head. "But I gotta do something right? I'll be back." Snow took off running.

Hope fell to his knees, I went over there to try and comfort him with Vanille. "It might be better to wait for-" I started to say. Hope slammed his fists on the ground.

"I'd rather go to Pulse! Why is happening to me?" I could see he was trembling. "The army took us and threw us on the train...and because of that guy, mom is..." he lifted his head.

"Hope"I said gently, "You cannot blame it on Snow, he did everything to try and prevent her death. I was with him. We both did our best but-"

Hope glared at me. I was a bit taken back. "She's DEAD! If you hadn't been hanging on her ankles and causing extra weight, _he_ could have saved her and-"

I was trying to get him to understand even though I did feel partly responsible, but what could I do? What happened was inevitable. I slightly lowered my head and look him straight in the eyes.

"Hope! I didn't have a choice in the matter. Look the brigde we on started to lean forward and all of us fell, I was lucky enough to grab her ankles. Believe me, she even tried to help me out, but it was futile. And she-"

"I don't care! Krystal stay away from me! Why did he save you and not..." My brown eyes widened in shock. Its like everything I just said went out the window. What he said had hurt. Vanille gasped.

He started to walk away, and I grabbed his shoulder and turned him around to face me. "Your mom was a brave women, she wanted us to get you home. I don't break promises. She wanted to protect you and she did by sacrificing herself. Now you have to carry on, It'll be hard but we'll help you."

Hope just glared even harder, if that was possible. He didn't want to hear anything I had to say. I just left him alone to think. Vanille tried to console him as well but he wasn't listening. Too much anger and hate. I saw Snow heading back toward us.

"Hey again." He said while catching his breath. Vanille replied with a "hey" back. I was sitting on the steps on the side of Snow in thought. I sighed, _What now?_

Vanille grabbed hold shoulders. "Lets go with them."

"What?" questioned Hope.

"You gotta talk to him. If you don't take this chance, you'll regret it forever." She replied. Hope nodded and we were on our way to find Serah.

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><p><em>Thanks for reading, please review! <em>


	10. Chapter Ten: Reunion

**This chapter contains foul language. Written by BluEyedLightning**

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><p>Chapter Ten: Reunion<p>

As expected, Lightning, Sazh, and I walked towards the vestige, what Lightning had called it. We ran into a few lousy soldiers that were easily taken care of, and even into a few of the deportees who begged us to take us with them when they saw that we were on their side. Lightning had coldly shrugged them off so Sazh and I told them that we were heading to confront the Pulse Fal'cie. In a heartbeat, the deportees ran away from us.

Now, we were stuck at the entrance being blocked off by a door with a weird pink symbol on it. Sazh and I were sitting down resting our feet, while Lightning was recklessly attacking the door with her gunblade.

"Still won't budge?" Sazh asked and stood up. "I think the door is winning."

I sneered, and then suggested that we find another way in, despite my growing fear of having to enter the place.

"Why didn't I listen?" Lightning quietly asked.

Both Sazh and I looked at her quizzically.

"What?"

"Uh, beg your pardon?"

Sazh and I were both straining our ears to catch anything else of what she was saying. Lightning had her palm out towards the door and her head down. She then turned around and told us to cover our ears.

"Oh, blast charge?" Sazh questioned with wide eyes. "Hold on, hold on!" He then ran ten feet away and got on his knees with his hands covering his ears. "All right, go for it! Make it happen!"

I facepalmed and stayed where I was. "She's not actually gonna get the door to open with explosives, Sazh. Did I pronounce that right?"

As Sazh was correcting me, I heard a loud whirring sound and, to my surprise and dismay, the door slowly opened. I expected a smug retort from Lightning, but she was already heading her way in.

Inside the vestige were a shitload of stairs. I groaned just thinking about having to climb all of them, plus encountering any enemies which we would surely being doing on the way.

"Needs more stairs," I murmured sarcastically after we climbed our fifth staircase.

"And I need silence," Lightning responded. She stopped in her tracks and sighed. "I need to think."

"What's gotten into you, soldier?" Sazh questioned. "I thought you came here for a fight."

"My sister."

"Yeah, you mentioned her before," I chimed in.

"She's a l'Cie," Lightning added.

"What? A Pulse l'Cie?" Sazh asked.

Lightning nodded. "The fal'Cie has her captive."

I checked my gun and said, "Then let's go save her."

Before we continued on, Sazh and Lightning talked about some Focus. If a l'Cie completes their Focus, then he or she becomes crystalized. Seemed like a shitty ending to me.

The next door opened and a few ugly zombie-like monsters appeared at the top of the next staircase. Sazh said that if l'cie don't complete their focus, then they become the ugly monsters.

Lightning and Sazh continued to talk, or more like argue. I made sure I stayed out of it, as it had nothing to do with me and I didn't give a damn. This was just a video game that I somehow got stuck into. The more time I spent in it, the more I worried about how I was going to get out. I had a lot of questions in my mind, like, did Krystal get sucked into this game, or if this was real at all. What was I doing here? Why did it have to be this game in particular? If I died, would it be game over for me? Would I die in real life? I had so many questions, and I doubt any of my "party members" would be kind enough as to answering them.

"It's people like you who started the Purge in the first place," I heard Lightning say. Then afterwards, we continued on. I could tell by both of their faces that none of them won the argument. Lightning looked distracted, even in battle, and Sazh had a guilty look on his face. He still did that ridiculous bouncing when we fought, though.

Our journey led us to more of the hideous looking monsters and a hell of a lot more stairs. Finally, we reached a platform that turned out to be like an elevator. It led us to – wait for it – more stairs. At the top of the stairs, though, lay a body.

Lightning ran towards the body. I could tell from the resemblance of the two that the body was her sister. She had light curly pink hair, like Lightning but with a ponytail on the left side of her face. She wore a red plaid skirt and a white sleeveless shirt underneath an almost transparent sweeper. I noticed she wore the same black armband like Lightning as well. She was also wearing stockings and boots.

"Serah!" Lightning cried out in panic as she stared down at her sister. She then, with ease, got to her feet with Serah in her arms. "Time to go. We have to leave before the army…" Her voice trailed off when Sazh stood in her way. "What?"

"Sazh, get out of her way," I warned.

This time, Sazh did the ignoring and said to Lightning, "That's a Pulse Brand. That girl's a l'Cie."

"I already told you that," Lightning reminded him hastily.

"Pulse l'Ccie are enemies of Cocoon," Sazh said. He was slowly reaching for one of his pistols.

I took out my weapon and pointed at him. "Stop, Sazh. Let's just go. Forget all of this."

"If she fails her Focus, you know how that'll end," Sazh continued, completely ignoring me. His eyes were focused on Lightning and were also wavering on Serah's unconscious body.

Lightning looked disgusted with Sazh. She moved an inch away from him and kept glaring at him. She then spat, "And killing her is a mercy?"

A hand moved to her face. It was Serah's. She opened her mouth and meekly said, "You came."

Lightning, in surprise, put Serah down gently. Just then, a voice rang out, "Serah!"

It was a guy's voice this time. I looked towards the direction of the voice and saw the moving platform descend upon us. I gasped when I saw Krystal. She was with some other chick with orange pigtails and a small boy with white hair. In the front was a tall man with a black bandana on his head and a beige trench coat.

"Krystal!" I shouted and waved eagerly.

"Raven!" Krystal shrieked with excitement.

The tall guy ran towards us and nearly sent Lightning flying when he crouched down beside Serah and took her hand.

"Is that my hero?" Serah's voice barely came as a whisper. She looked pleased to see her "hero."

Lightning looked furious.

Krystal and the other two she was traveling with joined us. She gave me a long hug, even though she knows I hate them, and said, "I'm so glad you're here."

I managed a smile and replied, "Same here." I then scanned her clothes and raised an eyebrow. "Interesting outfit. Those boots look strangely familiar…"

Krystal beamed. "They're the ones Alisa wears."

"The chick from Tekken?"

"Yup."

"How the hell were you able to pull that off?" I asked and didn't bother to hide my jealousy.

"No idea," Krystal laughed. She then paused to look at my outfit and said, "You're actually wearing a skirt?"

"I didn't choose this," I almost snapped.

Krystal giggled and replied, "Yeah, I figured."

We both turned our attention towards Lightning and the others. My mouth dropped when I saw Serah in crystalized form.

"What the f –"

I was interrupted by the tall guy and Lightning angrily yelling at each other. Lightning's fists were clenched and she looked beyond pissed. She turned her back on him as the tall guy was giving her reassuring words.

"I don't care how many years I have to wait –"

Lightning punched him. No, it was actually more of a falcon punch. To my surprise, and glee, the tall guy crumpled to the ground. I couldn't help but laugh at the situation.

Lightning was now my new favorite video game character.

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><p><strong>Reviews would be appreciated ^-^<strong>


	11. Chapter Eleven: Anima

Written by sukura123

Chapter Eleven: Anima

Krystal P.O.V.

Holy crap, Lightning, punched Snow super hard!

"It's over!" she shouted at Snow. "Open your eyes and face reality!"

For some reason I felt really defensive of Snow. I went over there and helped Snow to his feet. "Lightning calm down! I know you're upset, we all are, but don't take it out on him just because he's voicing his opinions."

Lightning didn't respond. She was still mad and upset about what just occurred. "Lightning, remember what Hope said about when someone turns to crystal, they are still alive. I'm sure there is something we can do." I was trying to end this argument, this wasn't helping. Still nothing from her. I took a quick glance at Vanille, who's been silent all this time. She seemed in deep thought once again and her expression was sad. I opened my mouth to say something when a mini earthquake shook the ground beneath us.

"Woah!" I said trying to balance myself.

"It's the army!" Sazh exclaimed with a worried expression. I heard gunshots in the distance. The area was starting to crumble. Lightning and Snow were trying to cover Serah's crystalized body from the falling debris. And Raven was near me attempting to hold her ground as well.

"What's happening?" Vanille asked.

"it must be a Sanctum strike." Sazh replied. "Bring down the vestige and the fal'Cie right with it."

Vanille grabbed his hands. "Aren't they taking it back to Pulse? That's where the Purge was right?" she asked. I wondered what the hell they were talking about.

Hope was the next one to speak. "We can't stay here! They'll kill us!" I saw that he was latched onto Vanille's hand. Vanille put a sad expression. She looked up and then the shaking stopped.

"Finally," I heard Raven say. I nodded. In front of us was another door with a red symbol that had just disappeared.

I saw Snow gently grabbed Serah's hand and said, "I'll be right back. Hold on."

"Trench coat, where ya going?" Sazh asked.

"Date with a fal'Cie." he replied. He definitely wanted to see what was behind that door. I didn't know if I wanted to.

"What? So you're gonna asked _it_ to help her? Are you outta your mind kid. That thing wants to chew us up and spit us out." Sazh said. Apparently, Snow was crazy for what he was about to do.

"Well what do you want me to do?" Snow yelled back in anger. Sazh was speechless. Lightning didn't give a damn and walked passed Snow, she must've had the same idea.

The rest of us followed suit. As usual creepy failed C'eth's awaited us. We picked up some potions too. Eventually, we made to the mystery door. Once on the other side of the door, I nearly bumped into Snow. The hallway we were in was dark but with cool sparkly lights.

I heard a gasp from Hope. "So this is the fal'Cie."

_Just looks like a machine to me. _

"Serah's a crsytal now." He pointed an angry finger at the fal'Cie. "You gave her a focus and she did it! You got what you want. Now let her go!" After all that, the fal'Cie didn't responed. _Epic fail..._

Snow got down on his hands and knees begging, "Please. Turn her back!" he put a hand over his heart. "I'll be your l'Cie instead!" My eyes widend. Now that's love.

Lightning couldn't take anymore of Snow's failed attemps. She brought her gunblade weapon and was getting ready to make the fal'Cie open its mouth.

"Like this thing gives a damn what we want!" She charged at it and began to beat the crap out of it. Raven and I joined in to help.

Finally it woke up. It was bigger than what I thought. I think its name was Anima, and it wanted to kill us. So we teamed up and attacked together. Raven and I worked on the large arms it had, while everyone else took care of the crsytal structure in the middle. Soon it was beaten.

Suddenly, there was a bright light, and we all found ourselves floating with the large crystal over our heads.

"Where are we?" Lightning asked. No one had a clue. The crystal started to go in and out of color. Then some gush of air hit the crystal making a bell ringing sound. We looked up to see Anima, and he did not look too happy.

He sent things green chain like lights at us. As soon as it touched me, several more green chains pretty much held me hostage like everyone else. I struggled to get free, but it was impossible. Anima used his other hand to send white chains at us, further binding us once again.

Without warning the chains holding us disappeared and we were forced down into oblivion.


	12. Chapter Twelve: We're l'Cie?

Chapter Twelve: We're l'Cie?

I opened my eyes and was immediately welcomed by a panging headache and body aches. I lay on the ground and closed my eyes again. What had happened? The last thing I remembered was fighting the fal'Cie and beating it, then all of us were floating in the air, then a sharp pain in the back of my shoulder…

I sighed and slowly got to my feet. I felt like an old woman as I stumbled to stand up. Looking around, the rest of the party members were waking up as well. They had the same look of confusion on their faces as I did.

"This must be… Lake Bresha?," Sazh commented as he gazed around him. He looked up and said, "I guess we fell from up there, and the lake turned to crystal."

"Amazing," Krystal breathed. "Everything's so beautiful."

"Did the fal'Cie do this?" Sazh went on with his rambling questions. "How in the world did we end up here?"

"How should I know?" Lightning snapped.

The red-headed girl fell to her knees and exclaimed, "We're alive! How?"

"Beats me," I responded. I then muttered to Krystal, "Who the hell is she?"

Krystal covered her mouth to hide her laughter and answered, "That's Vanille. The boy is Hope, and the tall guy is Snow."

"Weird ass names," I said in a hushed tone. I vaguely heard arguing in the background but decided to catch up with Krystal instead. "What have you been up to since you got here?"

Krystal shrugged nonchalantly and replied, "Fighting."

"And winning?" I joked.

"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be here, silly."

Before we could converse any further, at the corner of my eye I saw one of the zombielike creatures, called C'ieth, prowl towards Lightning. I cried out, "Lightning!"

Snow was on the creature in a flash. He yelled, "Watch out!" and blocked an incoming blow from the creature with his two hands. He pushed the C'ieth backwards a bit and then with his left fist, delivered a devastating blow. A mix of ice particles had formed around his hand when this happened. Afterwards, Snow took a few seconds to marvel at his newfound power.

"That was awesome!" Krystal goggled.

"Yeah it was," I agreed, grinning.

The others did not share in our amazement. Hope cried out, "You used magic! You used the power of a l'Cie. The fal'Cie cursed us. We're l'Cie now!"

My heart stopped. I was pretty sure everyone else's did as well at this unfortunate newsflash. Lightning looked unaffected by it though. She was already preparing to fight more of the C'ieth.

"Oh damn it, I lost my gun," I groaned, staring at my hands. Abruptly after, a freaking sword appeared in my hands. Its handle was about five inches long and around it were red wings. The blade itself was pretty wide. It was black with some weird inscriptions etched on it and was probably around 30 inches long and ten inches wide. I waved in the air a little bit while gawking at my new weapon. The sword wasn't heavy at all, thankfully.

I looked over at Krystal, who also seemed to have acquired a new weapon. Hers was a long golden staff with a large blue orb in the middle with a golden circle around it. She looked astonished as well.

"Krystal, look! Look at my badass sword," I gleamed as I showed her. She smiled and then twirled around her magnificent golden staff in response.

"Okay, let's kick some ass!" I cheered with confidence.

We were too late. Lightning, Snow, Sazh, Hope, and Vanille were already done with the C'ieth and were now showing off their tattoos.

"Aw," Krystal sighed with disappointment.

Vanille came over to us and asked, "What about you two? Do you girls have the mark?"

Lightning groaned with impatience and said, "Of course they have it. They've ended up here the same way we did. They're l'Cie."

Hope dropped to the ground and covered his ears as if he was in the middle of a war. He was clearly having some mental breakdown. He started to blame Lightning for what happened and then Snow and Serah. As soon as he mentioned Serah, Snow angrily yelled at him and pushed him to the ground. At this point, I started to feel bad for him. No one else, though, besides Krystal and Vanille, seemed to show any signs of pity.

Vanille spoke some reassuring words to him and then dragged him onwards. I guess this was the part where we had to follow.

"Let's go," I said to Krystal. She nodded. I then looked back and saw Lightning hesitating. "You coming?"

She, for once, answered, "Yeah."

The seven of us walked a bit on the crystalized lake. During this time, I had to carry my sword because it showed no intention of disappearing on me, like magic. As for Krystal's weapon, well, hers actually vanished in the air when she waved it once. I tried doing that, but almost hit Lightning in the face with it, in which she gave me one of her famous glares.

We encountered more enemies, and I was able to finally use my sword, though not as successfully as I had wanted. I was able to wield it with one hand, but using it in battle was a lot more difficult than I wanted. Whenever I landed a hit, a black fire would come out of the sword. At first I was startled, then I thought it was pretty badass.

We stopped after a few battles. Our "friends" discussed about a dream or some vision they had before we landed in Lake Bresha. Neither Krystal nor I spoke up about how we didn't have the same dream as they did. I thought nothing of it, since it was just a dream. Then Hope said something about a Focus.

I looked at Krystal worriedly and asked, "What was your dream about?"

Krystal's eyes were cast down and she spoke in a hushed tone, "I don't know, it was all dark. I do know that it's not what they dreamed of."

"Same here. Let's not tell them, though."

We continued on again and then the party spoke some more about their dreams and something called Ragnarok. By then I was getting bored and tired of us having to stop and discuss some more. I sat down on the crystalized ground and just stared at my sword in boredom. As Sazh and Snow were arguing, yet again, the rest of us just waited patiently for mommy and daddy to stop.

I zoned out a bit and then looked up. Lightning had her gunblade pressed against Snow's neck. She said through gritted teeth, "The fal'Cie took Serah from us, and you want to help it? Whose side are you on?"

"Good point," I muttered.

"Freeze!"

Just then, six of the PSICOM soldiers, or whatever they were, strode arrogantly towards us, and two more appeared behind us. There was no way of escaping now.

"Place your hands behind your head," one of them ordered us.

I looked around me and saw everyone slowly do as ordered. With frustration, I did the same and slowly lowered my sword. I saw that Lightning had actually dropped her gunblade, so I dropped my weapon in defeat.

The soldiers asked us if we fell of the Purge train. Lightning made a snide remark and then, to my excitement, took out all six soldiers with her bare hands. I mentally gave her a high five, and made sure she returned it. Afterwards, the rest of us got our pride back and took the remaining on the remaining soldiers. I still wasn't able to fight as well with a sword, but I was determined to get better.

After more walking, we finally reached an endpoint. Serah's crystalized form appeared before us, and of course Snow ran towards it. He grabbed some random pike and started to stab at it, as if it was going to actually budge. Vanille, Sazh, Hope, and even Krystal joined in. As for me, I was more worried about Lightning. This was her sister, after all. She knew Serah the longest. Also, I knew how it felt to lose a sister.

I looked back at Lightning. She had a pained look on her face, and she seemed to be remembering something that evidently brought her even more pain. I didn't bother to console her, fearing that she would punch me to the ground.

"Listen, Lightning..." I started, and then tried to find the right words to say. "I'm sor-"

Lightning didn't seem to be hearing me. She said the words "good bye" and then started to walk away. Snow noticed her leaving and asked her why she was. After the two argued (it seemed this was a daily thing nowadays), Lightning knocked Snow down in fury. Snow got up, and then Lightning lashed out again.

"Remind me never to piss her off," I said quietly to Krystal.

Lightning, shockingly, did not seem to feel any better after emasculating Snow.

After this seemingly repetitive scene, a huge giant scorpion robot appeared. We easily dispatched it - I actually landed the final blow to it. Afterwards, Lightning decided that we needed to keep moving. Snow decided to stay behind with Serah.

"Guess we should follow Lightning," I said and started to walk.

"Raven?" I heard a small voice say. I looked back and saw Krystal standing close to Snow. She had a guilty look on her face.

"What?" I asked. I then looked at Snow, who was oblivious to Krystal's presence, and then to Krystal's blushing face. "Oh I see." I grinned.

"I'm staying behind. You should go with Lightning," Krystal suggested.

Snow then turned around with alarm. "What? No, you two go with Lightning. I can handle this."

Not wanting my best friend to get hurt, I rushed to him and grabbed a part of his trench coat. I then said, through clenched teeth, "Let Krystal stay with you. She'll be better off here." My heart was actually beating fast. Although I have still not witnessed Snow hitting girls, I was still unwary as to what he was going to do to an inexperienced swordswoman.

Snow just sighed and said, "Fine, I'll take care of Krystal." He then grinned. "I'll make sure nothing happens to her."

"Good," I replied. I gave Krystal a sly grin and thumbs up, and then hurried after Lightning.


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Me and Snow

**Written by sukura123**

**Chapter 13: Me and Snow**

**Krystal** **P.O.V.**

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><p>After I watched Raven leave, I shyly smiled to Snow. He was saying, "Don't worry, I'll get you outta there." He was speaking to Serah. I found my piece of steel pipe and kneeled down next to him.<p>

"I'll help again." After a few minutes I said, "But it's kinda hopeless. Even you're not getting through the ice." He turned his head towards me and smiled.

"Thanks for the help Krystal. And I guess I see that now. But I promised Serah that I'd do anything to help her out."

"You're a wonderful guy Snow." I think I felt my cheeks get a little warm as I said that. "So I guess we've gotten ourselves into an even bigger mess huh?" I said. I stopped digging in the ice, and walked around in the area. I looked at my l'Cie brand on my shoulder. It looked cool, but was obviously not a good thing.

"You could say that. By the way, where are you from? Never really got into introductions." Snow gave up digging and just sat next to Serah.

"Well, somewhere far far away from here. Raven and I come from the same place though. We don't know why we are here. It's still confusing, but at least we aren't by ourselves. We'd probably be lost if we haven't met you guys."

"I see. You look like you might be around Serah's age. How old are you?"

"Ninteen. And I have kickbutt karate skills." I giggled. Snow laughed.

"Well then, Krystal, let's see what you got. Cause I'm very well trained in hand to hand combat. It's something to do to pass the time." Snow stood up and came into the middle of the area.

I raised my eyebrows. Snow was challenging me? "Uh okay." I walked over to the middle of the area as well. I got into a fighting stance and boy was I nervous. His tall and well-built body might just crush my small petite one. But I knew he would probably go easy on me. I'll show him just what I can do.

"Ready?" He asked. I nodded. Snow was the first to move, he came at me with a with a left hand punch, which I barely countered. Crap he was fast! As soon as he pulled back, I took my right hand and aimed for his stomach.

That failed as he just shoved it back. After blocking most of his punches, he began to use his legs too. I did the same.

He ran at me, as soon as he was close enough, I swept his legs out from under him and he lost his balance. He fell on his butt. "Hah, how'd you like that!" I playfully smirked. This was great practice.

I went for a punch to his face, but he was quicker. When my hand was only centimeters from it, he grabbed it with both of his hands, and flipped me onto my back. _Oooh, this ice or crystal is hard as hell. _

I laid there and didn't realize Snow calling my name till the second time.

"You okay Krystal? I didn't mean to that that hard." While looking up, I saw that he was kind of in my face. I felt my face heat up.

I shot up. "Y-yeah I'm fine! Nothing to worry about." Snow helped me up. "That was a cool training session."

"Yeah, you have quite a few skills there. Keep it up. We should train again soon girl." He raised his hand up and I gave him a high five. And we burst out laughing. A second later, we looked up to the sound of 3 green hover bikes flying over us. Then three big green planes came next with searchlights.

"l'Cie spotted, I repeat l'Cie spotted." Some man said over the intercom. Several PSICOM solders dropped down and aimed at us with their guns.

"Damn." Snow hissed. He stood protectively in front of me. Snow jumped and ran to the bad guys with me on his heels. He did an epic jump onto one the guys and got off.

"Cool!" I said. We both stood side by side and got into our fighting stances. We fought several guys and they still kept coming. In the middle of it all, Snow got down on his knees in pain. A bright blue light was radiating from his l'Cie brand.

As two clear blue figures came out of nowhere, the PSICOM guys backed up. These figures appeared to me like women with motorcycle parts attached to them in various places. They threw a wheel at the solders and gave them a run for their money.

"Whats happening?" Snow asked.

"The hell if I know." The two women turned to us and wanted a fight. Snow quickly stood up, and I took my place next to him.

"They don't like you too much." I joked. As the battle began, I began to attack but then remembered that I had my golden staff. I held out my hand into the air, as if expecting someone to grab it, and my weapon appeared. I almost shrieked with glee, but realized that would be utterly embarrassing in front of Snow.

I took it and tried to hit the ice women with the steering wheel. After about three hits, she threw her wheel at me which lifted me in the air and then was forced on the hard ice ground. My eyes widened from the pain, and I coughed up blood.

"Krystal! Snow cried. I sat up as best I could.

"I'm okay!" I forced a small smile. "Focus on the battle!"

Snow looked away from me back to the battle at hand with a worried expression. I managed to get back on my feet and hell my back was killing me. Snow was on guard for most of the battle and I jumped in attacking here and there. Snow got the same treatment I did earlier but he got back up with little difficulty.

I saw a button on the side my staff and pressed it. My staff flew up into the air and turned into two samurai swords. I've never used a sword in my life. But as I held them, I felt at ease. Snow was on guard duty. As soon as the sisters finished attacking, Snow made his final attacks and I finished it off by slicing them with my swords.

After that the sisters stopped attacking us and turned into an epic looking motorcycle. Snow jumped on it and went into a full three-sixty degree circle of ice.

Then the motorcycle disappeared as a blue light that went back into Snow's l'Cie brand. He layed on his back. He looked over and found me in the same position. My staff was folded and hanging on a belt loop on my side.

I was breathing hard, heck we both were. That battle was tough. I was very cold too thanks to those ice women.

"Krystal?" I turned my head to look at Snow. "You alright?" he asked in a worried tone.

"I'll live. I'm just glad it's over." I smiled at him. My body hurt like hell. Being hit with ice and a huge motor cycle wheel several times is not fun. We both had cuts and abrasions everywhere.

Snow slowly came over to me. "I saw that staff and swords you had, that was cool I gotta admit. As quiet as you are, I didn't think a weapon like that would be for you."

We still lay on our backs with our heads facing each other. "I guess, but hey, thank goodness I got them any-" Snow took a gloved finger and wiped blood off the side of my mouth.

"Sorry about that." He apologized. "You had some blood left by your mouth." Once again my eyes widened and I blushed madly. He was so kind.

"I-its okay and t-thank y-you." I couldn't believe I was stuttering.

I heard footsteps coming toward us. "The twin sisters. I gotta hand it to you for taking 'em down, but don't gloat just yet." This woman had long black hair with the edges being fiery red. She pointed her weapon at us.

She went on and on about things that I barely heard. I was losing consciousness and fast. She knocked out Snow and then me.

_Crap_

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><p><em><em>**Please review! Thank you :)  
><strong>


	14. Chapter Fourteen: Even More Battles

Chapter Fourteen: Even More Battles

We left Snow and Krystal, and I was pretty sure the two would get pretty close which is what I had hoped. I worried about Krystal. She was so shy when it came to people, and it seemed she really liked the tall dude. Maybe she would make the first move or something. Not likely though.

Trying to strike up a conversation, I said, "Hey, do you think Snow and Krystal will fall for each other?"

I was greeted by a snarl from Lightning. She said, "I hope not. That unemployed idiot is engaged to Serah, as much as I hate it."

I froze mid-step. Snow and Serah were engaged? I wish I had learned more about this game before I got stuck here. Cautiously trying to look at Lightning's expression, I replied nervously, "Well, Serah's like, crystal now. Snow would eventually get over her, right?"

Wrong response. Lightning was storming (no pun intended) towards me before I could even turn my words around. She lifted up her hand to strike me but I quickly sidestepped and kicked her lightly in the stomach. She got knocked backwards a little bit but she didn't seem to register this. On me again, she tried punching me this time, but I caught her hand. Glaring at her this time, I said through gritted teeth, "Don't you dare touch me."

To my surprise, Lightning's face contorted with rage softened a bit. I had expected more attacks from her but she just sneered at me and roughly tore her hand away. Quietly, she said, "I'm sorry."

Through the imaginary sound of crickets and the light breeze, I let out what sounded like a mix of a squeak and a gasp. Mouth dropped and eyes popping out, I stammered, "Wha – What did you say?"

Sazh, who I didn't even realize was still with us, along with Vanille and Hope, muttered to me, "Don't push your luck. She won't say it again."

Well, he was right. Lightning was already defending herself against a behemoth. While we were fighting it, I couldn't help but notice Lightning didn't look as pissed off as she usually was. Something was different about her now, and I wondered if it had something to do with me standing up to her. Perhaps no one had ever stood up to her before? Was she feeling embarrassed?

When we were done, we moved on. Lightning led us to an edge of a cliff. She was crouched down on her hands and knees, and the rest of us figured we do the same. It was a good thing we did, because a few yards away was a large odd-shaped looking fortress with a bunch of PSICOM soldiers marching about. Vanille and Sazh commented on how the soldiers and the people they "protected" feared l'Cie. I listened intently, as did the rest of us, and was soon lost in thought. Sazh seemed to know a lot about the people around here, and Vanille always sounded so sad and sympathetic.

Hope looked disgusted. He stood up and said, "L'Cie are not human."

Vanille actually looked like she was going to slap him across the face. She cried out, "Listen, you, that's enough!" She then grabbed his hand. After a few seconds, she let his hand go and walked away.

"Wonder what that's about," I muttered. Lightning actually acknowledged my existence and shrugged. A minute later, we all heard loud noises coming from the sky.

"There!" Lightning informed us, pointing ahead. Large flying ships whizzed right past us, too fast for me to count. "They're sealing off the area. They're trying to trap the stragglers." Lightning added. She advised us to keep moving, in which we did.

After stopping for some conversation, which I never found logical seeing as how we were on the run, we reached a gate featuring a lot of stairs. I let out a groan at the thought of having to climb more stairs – it seemed like a reoccurring thing in this game. At the top was another behemoth. We quickly got rid of it and continued to walk. During the walking and the fighting, I saw flames that were actually crystalized. It was pretty neat, in my opinion. We also faced some more PSICOM shitheads and more of the robots.

We stopped, for like the hundredth time, and Vanille went off on her own. In a matter of minutes, she was screaming on the top of her lungs and running towards us in a frenzy. We quickly learned why she was in such a panic; there was a large flying beast thing coming right at us. We immediately went into battle. Once we started, I stared at the beast wondering how I would reach it. Sazh had his pistols, Vanille had her fishing rod and her magic, Hope had his magic and some boomerang, and Lightning had her gunblade plus a few magic spells. What did I have? A sword that sometimes lit on fire. Problem was, I couldn't even reach the damn enemy unless I magically jumped twenty feet in the air.

"I'll just stand here and do nothing," I stated, feeling defeated.

"You're a l'Cie," Hope informed me with his eyes focused heavily on the opponent. "You should be able to use magic, like us. It explains how you got that sword."

I raised an eyebrow. He was right. With a burst of confidence, I positioned myself next to Hope and raised my sword. Nothing happened.

"Um…Go fiery sword?" I asked meekly. My stupid weapon didn't react. I then remembered playing another Final Fantasy game, and also what magic they used. Didn't they have a fire spell? "Firaga!" I yelled, and fortunately a surge of fire flew out of my sword and onto the creature. The creature flew away.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed, nearly jumping up and down.

"It's charging up," Lightning told me.

"Thanks for bursting my bubble," I grumbled.

We ran off towards it, and after several minutes we finally took it down. Afterwards, we moved on, like always. We then approached one of the PSICOM's airships, and of course we all decided to go on it. Turns out Sazh was a pilot, so I had the utmost confidence in him that he wouldn't get us all killed.

I was wrong. As soon as we departed, we were targeted by other airships. Ours couldn't take any more hits, so we ended up crashing. As I saw the ground slowly beckon us to our demise, I wondered what would happen if I died in this game? Luckily for us, we didn't die.

I woke up, again with more body aches, and saw Sazh, Vanille, and Hope all knocked out. Lightning was facing up against four robotic dogs, so I ran up to her to help her out. Before I could utter an apology, the rest woke up and caught up to us. After we defeated the dogs, Vanille started to make really weird sounds, saying "Ahh" and sat down. Sazh joined her, but Lightning was already walking away.

"What, no break?" Sazh asked in surprise.

"Not with her," I answered. "Haven't you learned that already?"

"They're tracking us," Lightning said.

"I know that. I know that, but we aren't soldiers. We don't have that kind of stamina," Sazh continued to argue.

"You've got enough to complain," Lightning retorted. I stifled a laugh. She was definitely right.

After Lightning walked off, Hope hesitantly said to us, "I think, um…"

"I'd stick with her if I were you," Sazh completed his sentence for him.

"Later, then." Hope then ran off like a dog after his master. I guess that made me the same because I decided to follow Lightning as well.

"I'm going with them," I told Sazh and Vanille. "I have a feeling Lightning won't be too kind to that kid."

Sazh nodded and replied, "Good luck, then. That kid needs as much help as he can get."

I gave him a weak smile and then hurried on my way. I hope I would see those two again, along with Krystal.


	15. Chapter Fithteen:On the Ship

**Written by sukura123**

**Chapter Fithteen: On the Ship**

**Krystal P.O.V.**

I opened my eyes quickly thinking back to the last situation. I regreted that instantly as the bright lights burned my eyes. I slowly reopened them.

I looked to my right and seen Snow on the bed next to me. He was still passed out. I rolled out of bed and tried to find a door. The whole room was a dull grey with two beds in it. No windows.

After ten minutes of useless searching, Snow awoke.

I walked over to his bed. "Hey, good news we're aren't dead." I said happily.

He streached and sat up on the side of the bed. "Uh where is the door?"

I replied "I've been trying to find it, must be invisible or something." We both let out a small laugh.

Snow got up went to punch different doors, and kick them. He was getting ready to summon Shiva when I pressed a hidden button I found.

"Nice work, let's go." Snow said and I followed him out of the room. We came into a large cafeteria. I saw the women with the firey red edges walk over to us. Snow and I tensed up.

"Relax you two, your gonna be fine. My name is Fang." Fang said smiling. I decided that she was alright and shook her hand. Snow did the same,

"Snow and this is Krystal." he introduced us both.

"Well you guys been out for a few hours, let's eat." Fang walked us over to a nearby table and we sat down. "Go wash up first though."

She lead Snow and I to the bathrooms, got cleaned up and met up with Fang.

"Come on guys, the line is over here." She pointed to the small line that lead into the kitchen. We got up and went to grab some food.

"Hope the food is good here." Snow joked. I smiled and grabbed an apple, and a turkey sandwitch. _Good thing they have some normal food in this game._

Snow grabbed some food I didn't know a thing about. It looked like some type of pasta. We joined Fang and she explained how she was the same as us. She showed us the l'Cie brand on her arm. Her looked kind've faded though.

"We are good sized resistance army. We are under orders to pretty much help you guys out. And we despise PSICOM." Fang sighed before she any further. It seemed she could go hours on end about why she hated PSICOM.

Fang left to go attend to other things.

"Snow this is random, but what does it feel like to have Shiva in your arm?" This dumb question just popped into my head. He thought for a few minutes.

"Well, it feels normal, my arm doesn't hurt at all."

"Hey we should explore this huge ship after we eat. What do you say?" I asked him.

"I'm eager to know about this place too, its a date!" Snow exclaimed. Oh man if Lightning heard him say that, he would've been beaten to a pulp.

I blushed turned away from him. Damn my shyness! Anyway I turned back to him with a big smile on my face. "Let's go have fun!"

For the next few hours and in about 2 days we explored the whole thing from top to bottom. We found a few training rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, decks here and there. They even had a huge dock where flying machines came in and out at.

"Snow can you teach me how to ride these things?" I asked pointing to an avaliable hoverbike.

"I don't see why not. Could come in handy." He motioned me over to one he just started. "See you turn the engine on with this button."

"Ah okay, then what?"

It took all of forty-five minutes to learn the ins and outs of this thing. All I had to do was get in one and fly it.

"Let's give it shot." Snow said out of the blue.

"W-wait! I think-" Too late, he put me on the hoverbike anyway.

He smiled a big mischevious grin. "Now remember everything I said." He started it for me and the bike rose up.

_Whoo I'm doing it! _I thought proudly. "Krystal you have to go somewhere first."

I went straight first and did a few zig zags and turns. I saw Snow hop on one and join me.

"How about a race? Around this part of the ship?"

He was asking to get beat, at least I hope I could beat him.

"I accept your challenge, loser has to steal Fang's spear and hide it."

"Deal! Go!" He yelled. I raced to catch up with him. We zoomed through the hole area, pulling off stunts I was sure I would die from. As we neared the finish line, Snow zoomed right passed me and won.

"You totally cheated." I joked. Snow shrugged. I gotta figure how to get Fang's staff away from her.

"You did really good though." He complimented me.

"T-thank you." It really felt good when he was being himself. I knew I liked him alot. The thing is he is already had a relationship with Serah, well she is crystallized. And I can't help it that I feel this way. He just so cute and fun to be around. But could this relationship turn into anything else?

I didn't know. I don't even know if he feels anything other than friendship towards me. Oh well, guess I'll find out later.

Lucky for me Fang's weapon was in the room next to us. I silently creeped in, grabbed it and tried to find a good place to hide it. I was gonna face hell from her when she finds out.


	16. Chapter Sixteen: Pointless

**Short chapter, sorry. I had a case of Writer's Block. -BluEyedLightning**

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><p>Hope and I had to run a shit ton to catch up to Lightning. The soldier asked if it was just us, and we responded yes. Hope seemed worried about Vanille and Sazh, but of course Lightning shrugged it off and said that they would catch up.<p>

We encountered more battles with different types of enemies. Hope focused on healing us and doing magic, Lightning went with the more physical tactic, and I basically muttered "firaga" the whole time. Some of the enemies were unaffected with my lame fire magic, so I joined Lightning with hacking and slashing at our foes instead.

Afterwards, we came up to a large wall that looked climbable, though Hope always seemed he was having an asthma attack. I was worried about him but he was always determined to put on a façade in front of Lightning to show he was strong. I guess she had that effect on people.

"Can we get through this way, you think?" Hope asked. He then hesitantly said, "You know where you're going, right?"

"I've been here on missions before," Lightning answered. She then proceeded to explain what PSICOM and the Guardian Corps as she climbed the wall. The two continued to talk while I deliberately spaced out because I honestly didn't give a shit to what they were saying. All I wanted to do was find a way to get out of this game.

"Can we go?" I impatiently interrupted their tea party.

As if answering my question, Lightning climbed the rest of the wall like freaking Ezio from the Assassin's Creed games. Hope called out to her but she was already at the top, not giving a damn.

"She left me," Hope said sadly as he sat down and pouted.

"I'm still here," I tried comforting him. Then I realized I wasn't much of a support unit since I was clueless as to where we were and I wasn't nearly as good of a fighter as Lightning.

Hope gave me an apologizing look and replied, "Sorry. I just…"

"Forget it" I sighed. "Let's just hurry up and catch up. You know she won't wait for us."

"No. It's useless."

"You haven't even tried," I snapped. I then started to regret my tone with him. He was just a kid who clearly lost someone close to him. Hope was zoned out to even notice me speaking to him.

With determination, I made my way towards the wall and started to meekly climb. I called out to Hope, "It's really not that bad! The wall isn't even that high so I think it will be easy for you to – Oh fuck!"

I slipped and fell hard on my back, knocking the wind out of me. I thought I would pass out from the impact but I didn't. I groaned and slowly got back to my feet.

"Are you okay?" Hope asked emotionless.

"Yeah, no worries," I said, putting on a fake casual smile. My smile quickly slipped as a jolt of pain ran down my spine, and I spat out a few curse words. Hope was silent during my rant. Since he didn't seem to want to try climbing the wall, I told him I would try to find another way for him to get to Lightning. He didn't respond.

"It's like talking to a fucking wall," I muttered angrily to myself as I did my second attempt at climbing. Thankfully this time I made it up. After giving a rather weak wave to Hope, who had a blank look on his face, I walked north on my own. I know it was bad leaving a kid behind, but Sazh and Vanille would be coming in any minute. As for me, I was more curious as to why the hell Lightning just left, especially a vulnerable boy like Hope. I walked for I guess fifteen minutes and even fought some creatures on my own even though I was outnumbered. I spammed the word "firaga" like a noob but it got rid of the damnable beasts. Eventually I reached Lightning. She was examining a crashed hovercraft to even notice me coming up behind her. When she did, she whirled around and punched me in the face.

"What the hell?" I yelled, clutching my nose, which started to bleed.

"Don't sneak up behind me next time," she said unapologetically. "You're lucky I didn't use my gunblade."

"Gee, thanks," I growled sarcastically. "Why the hell do I even bother following you? You're fucking psycho."

Lightning ignored me. She searched a dead PSICOM soldier but seemed to find nothing useful.

"Hope's pretty bummed you left him," I told her, still pinching my nose.

"Then why did you leave him? I only left because you were there." Lightning sounded worried, for once, making me realize that she actually did care for the kid.

For once I had no smartass comeback.

"The others should be with him now," Lightning then said, though it sounded like she was reassuring herself than talking to me. "Let's go. They'll catch up eventually."

There were a million things I would rather do than follow Lightning since every encounter with her seemed to end with violence or a verbal conflict with her, but since it seemed our friends were on their way towards us, and I had no idea where I was going, I had no choice but to follow.


	17. Chapter Seventeen: Doing Stuff

**Written by sukura123**

**Chapter Seventeen: Doing Stuff**

**Krystal P.O.V.**

Hiding Fang's staff in the docking area was pretty easy. I hid it right above the entrance. She'd take forever to find it. I hope. Not too many places to hid spears here. The next moment I heard yelling in the halls about a staff.

I stood admiring the bikes and the guys in masks doing their work. Fang came in dragging Snow by the collar of his coat. "Where the hell is my staff?" She shouted at me.

Had Snow told her? "I don't know..." I said. I bet she didn't buy it one bit.

"Krystal, Snow told me about your bet when I threatened to throw him off the ship. Literally. And no one else is dumb enough to do rob me." She had fire in her eyes and was serious.

I gave up. "Yes it was me, but where do you think it is?" I asked.

Her glare intensified ten times, I felt like I shrunked down to a little rodent. "U-up there." I pointed to the entance.

"We're rolling out," the Fang said. She took once glance at me and noticed the l'Cie brand on my arm. "So you're both running from the law eh?" she joked.

"You could say that." I replied.

Snow, Fang and I got on a big ship and took off. While Snow and Fang were conversating in the front. I felt like exploring.

I walk all around while thoughts of how long is this game? Since Raven and I didn't have the same dream as the others, what did that mean? Can we be revived by phoneix downs if we die?

Still lost in thought, I haden't realized that I stumbled into what looked like a training room. There were mats everywere.

"Mind if I join you?" Fang asked coming in front of me.

"Not at all. Wanna train or something?" I asked her. She already had her weapon out.

"I see the way you look at Snow." That caught me off gruad and she cut me on my cheek. A small cut.

I flushed, and I knew she could she it. "Ah so its true. Aww so Cute!" She crushed me in a hug. I couldn't breath and she let go.

"I bet he already knows how you feel. Is he single?"

"I think he knew a long time ago. Currently yes, but he is engaged." My staff protected me from another blow from Fang. I pulled it apart and decided to use my swords.

"That's awesome." Fang said admiring my weapons. "I like a challenge." She smirked and started to increase her attacks.

Fang added, "I see. Are you gonna confess?" She asked flipping over me and kicking me to the ground.

"I don't know. I mean I've tried to put it in the back of my head, but I can't help it. I know he's in love with Serah though." I said rolling out of the way of her attack. I jumped into the air and threw one sword at her, which she dodged. But it did rip a piece of her blue clothing.

"That's gotta be tough Krystal." She lit me on fire. I screamed and ran all around the room like an idot waving my arms everywhere. The flames went away. I looked in a nearby mirror to see that a few areas of my clothes and hair were charred.

"FANG! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?" I yelled at her.

Since I was normally quiet, she was surprised at my anger. "I apologize, I thought you would counteract or dodge. You must be new?" I nodded.

"I'll teach you some really good spells. Come on let's begin." She motioned me to sit in front of her and my magic lessons began.


	18. Chapter Eighteen: Lightning's Eidolon

I was glad when Sazh, Vanille, and Hope joined Lightning and I, because the lacking of conversation between us two just made it awkward. Hope looked a little more cheerful, no thanks to me, and so did Sazh and Vanille. They spoke more, much to my disappointment. I began to realize that whenever they did talk, the reason I didn't give a shit was because it had nothing to do with me. I shouldn't even be a part of this game. Sure, having fire powers and being able to wield (rather poorly) a sword was wicked, but it was insane.

"Raven?"

I was jerked back to reality (kind of) and turned my head towards Lightning. "What?" I asked. To my surprise, my voice sounded harsh. I cleared my throat and asked, more softly this time, "Yeah?"

I thought I saw a speck of sympathy in Lightning's eye, but just a second. She replied, "You coming?"

"Uh, I guess," I warily answered. It seemed that the party was splitting up due to differences in goals. Lightning wanted to fight back, while Sazh and Vanille wanted to take the more peaceful approach. I figured Hope would follow Lightning since she seemed to be some kind of role model to him. "Well, good luck you two," I said kindly to Sazh and Vanille.

"You sure you don't want to stick with us?" Sazh asked me.

I scratched my head. "No offense, but I'd rather end this conflict as soon as possible so I can get back to my home."

Vanille clasped her hands and happily said, beaming, "Oh that's right, you and Krystal aren't from around here!"

I had no idea why she was so fucking happy.

"Yeah," I slowly responded. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, I waved, rather unenthusiastically, and walked off. Hope angrily said something to Sazh and Vanille in which I didn't hear, and he trailed behind me.

When we both reached Lightning, she looked at Hope disapprovingly and said, "I can't babysit you anymore."

Hope was panting and had, well, a hopeful expression on his face that was just quickly crushed after hearing Lightning's words. He desperately said, "I can fight. I'm not afraid."

"He's a pretty good healer," I mumbled, trying to back him up.

Lightning scowled, and then quickly spun around. Five PSICOM soldiers appeared and pointed their guns at us. In reality, they would've shot us right there, but this was a game, and all they did was stare at us stupidly to see what we would do. One of them in the back of the group triggered some button that caused an explosion behind us. We had no choice but to fight.

Lightning and I rapidly ran up towards the soldiers with sword in hand and took out two of them while Hope cast some blizzard spells. When one of us was wounded, he would heal us and I would thank him. Once we were done, Hope called Lightning's name. She told us to call her Light and then informed us of where we were going, which was a place called Palumpolum, and then transport to Eden. Hope told her that he lived in Palumpolum and that he could show us the shortcuts. Lightning nodded and then resumed walking.

"Guess you're stuck with us then," I said to Hope, giving him a light pat on the head.

He gave me a small smile then said, "I'm sorry I was rude to you earlier."

"No problem," I shrugged, and the two of us started walking. While Lightning was several feet ahead of us, Hope and I conversed with each other. He was able to tell me what happened to his mother, which explained a lot, and I told him about my world. The boy seemed fascinated, especially when I told him about the different animals we had. I told him that the chickens we had were a lot like chocobos, only less cool.

"Shh, quiet," Lightning whispered and crouched. Ahead of us were two soldiers talking in front of a huge machine. They didn't seem to notice us, until I sneezed. Lightning shot me a glower as the soldiers figured out where we were and came to attack us. Three against two made the battle last for half of a minute. Afterwards, Hope suggested we try out the machine as he studied the machine.

"Hey, you're gonna hurt yourself! Don't touch that!" Lightning yelled in a motherly tone.

"Wait. What if it works?" Hope retorted.

"Leave it!" Lightning snapped.

The machine came to life, to our astonishment, and Hope was on top of it.

"I told you to leave it," Lightning mumbled as Hope screamed out protests. He was then able to control it and made us a bridge.

"Aren't you glad we kept him around?" I slyly asked Lightning. She just did a "hmph" and crossed the bridge.

"Hey Raven, you wanna get on?" Hope shouted down at me.

"I think I'll pass," I replied dryly. I hated tall things that moved.

With Hope on the large machine, fighting baddies reduced to a minimal because all he had to do was make the machine swipe at them while Lightning and I casually walked onward. Eventually it did run out of juice and Hope joined us on foot.

While we were walking, Hope tripped and I helped him up. Lightning stopped and coldly said, "This isn't working. I mean, you're a liability. You'll just slow us down."

"What the hell, Lightning," I furiously yelled at her. Hope looked like he was going to burst out in tears.

"I'm sorry, but I can't protect you when –" Lightning's sentence was cut off when she suddenly cried out in pain. I saw that she had her right hand covering her chest.

"You can't leave me here! You've got to take me with you!" Hope continued to complain.

"Uh…" I began to say, since I seemed to be the only one noticing Lightning was in some kind of pain, but I stopped myself because I truthfully didn't know what to say. What was happening to Lightning? She yelled back at Hope and dropped to her knees. At that moment I saw that her chest was giving out some strange, pink light. Soon after, the ground beneath Lightning changed into some odd, ritualistic symbol. It resembled some type of flower, to me. Lightning leapt away from the large symbol in surprise. All I could do was gawk idiotically as a huge warrior-looking being slowly rose from the ground. He had a huge shield on his left hand and a two-sided blade that was the about the same size as the unknown being. The being itself was fucking huge in size, and he was about to attack Hope but Lightning quickly ran in front of the boy and blocked the blow with her sword. This initiated a battle that I was hoping would not happen, but this knight looked like a complete badass.

Right as the battle began, Lightning was struck with some weird black spell. I didn't waste any time pondering what it was but instead sent a firaga spell at our opponent. He deflected it and struck me with his incredibly large sword. Of all the battles we fought, that hit hurt the most. I felt like my health and stamina was depleted by half and I couldn't even get up. As I crouched, I felt Hope healing me. As soon as he did, the large warrior turned his focus on him. He conjured up a thunderbolt upon us, and that one hurt a lot as well. I could already sense this battle was going to be tough. Hope was frantically trying to keep us all alive while Lightning and I pathetically used magic on the tall guy. None of our attacks seemed to have any effect on him though. Our enemy sent us flying in the air with just one attack, and all three of us landed hard on the ground. Lightning and I slowly got to our feet, but Hope had passed out.

"Shit!" I exclaimed in panic. "Hope's down!"

"Heal him!" Lightning ordered and charged at the knight to distract him.

"I don't know any healing spells," I yelled back.

"Use a phoenix down!" Lightning threw me a bottle and then dodged another blow.

"Okay," I panted to myself. "Here goes nothing."

I literally threw the small bottle at Hope, thinking it would revive him. It didn't.

I knew in seconds, if I didn't get my shit together, all three of us would be dead, or passed out. I anxiously tried to remember how to use potions in the Final Fantasy games. Usually you just hit the phoenix down button, but there were no buttons. This was real.

Having no idea what else to do, I desperately ran over to Hope's downed body and legit started to perform CPR. "Get up! You're our beast healer!" I shouted in his peaceful face. From the groans of Lightning, I could tell this battle was going to be over in a matter of seconds. Feeling defeated and depressed, I placed both of my hands over his small chest and hung my head. I didn't want to die, especially in a video game, but this seemed to be my fate.

Hope suddenly opened his eyes and leapt back to his feet, knocking me over. I stared at him in bewilderment and then looked at my hands since they were now burning. My hands were radiating a red and white light. The pain in them slowly went away, and I sluggishly got back to my feet.

"Thanks, Raven," Hope smiled at me graciously and then healed all of us just in time for Lightning to finish our opponent off with one final strike.

Still confused as to what happened, I replied absentmindedly, "Uh huh…" When we were done, our opponent disappeared, and Lightning was kneeling on the ground. Hope ran towards her and asked her if that was an eidolon which was some kind of summoned being that only l'Cie have the power to do. Lightning denied it but we all knew Hope was right. She picked up her weapon and stood back up again.

"Am I really in your way?" Hope sadly asked.

"No," I quickly answered for her. Lightning just sighed and walked away.

"I'll do better! I'll try harder, I'll –"

"Hope," Lightning interrupted. "We'll toughen you up. I'm sorry about before." She then resumed walking and Hope eagerly followed.

I stood by myself for a few seconds. Since I'm also a l'Cie, I wonder what my eidolon would be?


	19. Chapter Nineteen: Learning

**Krystal P.O.V.**

**Chapter Nineteen: Learning**

"Im sure you can handle all that. Come on try out a few of em." Fang said. I nodded and stood up walking over to other side of the room.

I concentrated and thought a of random spell. My staff appeared and I shouted out, "Thundaga!" Big bolts of lightning strikes rained down on Fang. She didn't even try to run.

Her hair was more frizzled now though. She gave me a wide smile and said. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"Come on keep them coming, and I'll throw some at you as well." Fang added. For the next thirty minutes we trained rough, but had fun.

"Blizzaga!" I yelled. Fang dodged and countered with Poision. I started to feel really sick,

_What was that spell for getting rid of this_? I thought as she charged at me with a physical attack. I luckily blocked it and swept a leg under her to make her fall.

I quickly backfliped, another new move she taught me. I was always afraid to do it. And cast Esuna on myself. Feeling much better, I went over to Fang who was still on the ground. She was resting, I laid beside her.

"Nice session Krsytal." Fang complimented.

"Thanks." I grinned. "What's Snow up to?" I shyly asked.

"Just hanging out in the front of the ship." Fang replied. "Where are you from by the way?"

"Well, a girl named Raven, my best friend and I are from a way different planet then here. Its called Earth. Somehow we were brought here and met up with Vanille, Snow, Hope, Lightning, Sahz, and Serah, Lightning's little sister." I explained.

Continuing on, "Anyway we-"

"Did you say Vanille?" Fang exclaimed. I nodding quickly, thinking they must be friends.

"She has firey orange hair in two low pony tails and some weired foreign clothes. She's really kind and sweet too." I said.

Fang smiled. "That's her alright." She added, "Sorry don't mean to interrupt you, go on." she apologized.

"Its okay, at least you found your friend again." I smiled again and went on with the story. Everything from the time we got here up till now. Fang was wide eyed.

"Woah. That's quite an adventure." She put her hand on her chin in thought.

When she lifted her arm, I seen her l'Cie brand. "Fang, why is your l'Cie brand white? Everyone else's is black." I hoped I wasn't being too pushy.

She sighed with annoyance. She put a hand on her brand. "It burned off. I think it was when I awakened from my crystal stasis."

I arched an eyebrow. "Wait, so you mean you completed your focus? That's what happened to Serah. But she is still crsytallized." I was confused.

"I'll clear up the confusion." I guess she saw the look on my face. She closed her eyes thinking of the past. I paitenly waited for her to began.

We still lay side by side on the floor.

"Vanille and I from a village that existed about five hundred years ago called Oerba. The planet or whatever it was called Grand Pulse. We were both in the orphanage and that's how we met. We become very close. I saw her as a little sister and vice versa." She paused and continued.

"At this time, we weren't l'Cie. We both lost our families and I was outraged at Anima, our so called protection. Soon, we both become l'Cie to protect our home." Fang look like she wanted to punch a wall as she gritted her teeth.

I nodded for her to continue.

"We held such awesome but dangerous power. Vanille was frightened of it. I became Raknorak to protect her but I wasn't strong enough to do what I wanted. Since our focus wasn't really completed, a goddess named Etro stepped in and crystallized us."

"All I know is that I woke up in Cocoon, and I still don't have any memories of before then. In short that's all I know for now. But maybe if we see eachother soon, I'll remember more." Fang concluded her story.

I found it super interesting that she was over five hundred years old and still looked like a young women. I wonder how old Vanille really is? I bet she's gonna be so happy to see her friend.

"Very interesting, I sure you'll unconver alot more sooner or later." I said putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.


	20. Chapter Twenty: Getting There

**Chapter Twenty: Getting There**

**Krystal P.O.V.**

Fang and I were having a random conversation about food when we were jolted forward to the wall from impact.

"Hey ladies, let's move!" Snow called to us.

Fang and I ran out after him. While Snow and Fang took care of the bad guys, I peered over the edge of the rail to see Lighting and Hope.

"Hey!," I called. "We gotta get to them now. There is no way they can handle all of them."

Snow brought out the Shiva sisters and they made a motorcycle. All of us hopped on and rode down the icy pathways. Fang shot at the enemies while I used Firiga to burn them.

Once we took all out all the PISCOM soldiers, we stopped to check on the others. Snow hopped of first.

"Lighting." Snow started. Lightning ignored him and threw Hope at him. She was too focused on the battle ahead. Snow tried to reason with her again but it was no use.

Looking around I noticed Raven wasn't with them and even in the area.

"Lightning, where is Raven?" I asked in worried tone.

"I don't know, as soon as we reached Pallumpolum, she went off on her own." Lightning began to run off toward a battle with Fang right behind her.

"Hope do you know what happened?" I asked and he said pretty much the same thing. "I'm sure we'll bump into her somewhere along the way."

Snow, Hope and I hopped back on the motorcycle. Snow pulled off crazy tricks, one was too much for Hope and he fell off. I jumped off as some PSICOMS soldiers prepared to shoot him.

Landing in front of him just in time, my staff appeared and created a barrier around us. Snow took out the remaining few.

He grinned at me. "Nice work."

"Thank you." I blushed and helped Hope to his feet.

We travelled through icy caverns and headed up to wherever. I kept my eyes peeled out for Raven, hoping she would appear soon.

Eventually, and fight after fight, we made a pit stop. Snow's stick thing was ringing and he picked it up.

"Why haven't you called in?" I knew it was Fang yelling at him. We have been travelling for a while now though.

Snow had to take the phone away from his ear. As Fang and he talked, I went with Hope by a window. We see a few PSICOM solders talking in an alley.

"Come on you two, time to get moving. Maybe we'll spot Raven somewhere." Snow said leading the way again.

We ran through a large area of the town. Fighting enimies here and there.

Once in the alley, the three of us hid behind a large box. Peeking around the corner, we saw the bad guys ordering people around.

Snow did something I never expected. He ran toward the crowed and pushed one of the soldeirs down knocking him out cold. He took the gun and fired shots in the air. Making several people run for their lives.

A few guys with jetpacks on came toward us with guns ablazing. I got my staff out while the others prepared for battle. Those guys were difficult and they were kinda cheating because they could fly.

After the battle we ran into another alley and Snow checked out a broken down jetpack.

"Think this'll work?" Hope asked and Snow nodded working on fixing it. I saw a little girl with a green stuffed animal out of the corner of my eye.

"Hello, are you alright?" I asked her as I took small steps forward. She scooted back in response and screamed when I got too close for comfort.

"Don't worry I won't hurt you." I said gently trying to calm her down. It was futile and some of the people in the crowed were yelling at us. The little girl took this oppertunity to push me down and run like heck to her mom.

Snow and Hope was still working on trying to get the jetpack to work. We needed to be separated from this crowed before any more issues arised.

"Blizzaga!" I shouted as I focused the attack on the beams above us. They fell and the civilians backed away.

I placed the girl's teddy bear on the beam and went back to Snow and Hope.

"Ready to go, because we have company." Snow said grabbing us both as PSICOM soilders shot at us. We luckily got outta there and landed on a rooftop or road.

I stood up and brushed dirt off my dress. I took one step and nearly screamed in pain. But I held it back. Look down at my foot, I seen that my right had blood coming out of a hole on the side of my white boot.

I slowly took it off and didn't find an exit wound. I hoped my magic could cover this. I tried to heal my ankle as Snow and Hope came toward me. It dulled the pain for now, but the bullet was still lodged in there.

"Christina, that doesn't look too good." Hope said examining the wound with Snow.

"Unfortunately, magic can't cure everything. That has to come out." Snow said slowly grabbing my ankle to get a better look.

"Here Snow." I said as I pulled out one of my samuri swords. He took it and made sure I was ready for what was to come.

I nodded. After several excrutiating minutes of pain the bullet was out. I made sure to attemped to keep my mouth shut. I didn't want to seem weak because of a bullet wound.

When I finally looked down at my ankle, Snow was using Hope's bandanna to wrap it up and he gently set my foot down on the pavement.

"Thank you." I squeak to the both of them. My sword dissapeared.

Snow stood up and turned my head towards him, wiping away my tears. "Hey, its alright, you were brave." He ruffled my hair as a blush appeared on my face.

Without warning he pick me up and placed me piggy back style on his back.

"Snow I-" I began

"Magic isn't gonna help this one. And the pain will be back sooner or later. Don't worry we are almost to Hope's place." He said grinning back at me as we walked.

"And no, your not slowing us down." He gave me a gentle smile that made my heart soar. I blushed once again.

While walking for a while, he put me down whenever battles came up. I helped out by throwing magic spells and things.

I kept my all peeled for Raven the whole way. We stopped to rest about maybe halfway to Hope's house. During Snow and Hope's coversation, a big red dragon appeared.

We didn't really have space to go anywhere. It began to attacked us instantly, and I threw up a barrier to protect us. I got myself up off the ground slowly. I casted some more magic on my ankle which was starting to throb again.

"Your gonna fight anyway, even if I say no right." Snow asked. He didn't like this idea. We didn't have choice. I nodded and got more magic ready as Lightning and Fang joined the team.

"Mind if we join in?" Fang asked readying her spear as Lightning did the same. I hoped Raven would appear soon. We began our attack.


	21. Chapter Twenty One: Waiting

**A/N (BluEyedLightning): Hey guys, I'm really sorry for the delay. Won't happen again! To refresh your minds, this chapter is written by BluEyedLightning, who writes for the chapters in Raven's point of view. **

* * *

><p>I have no idea why I had left the party. Lightning, our stubborn leader, kept pushing us forward but I wanted to take a break. To my dismay, Hope had the same eagerness to move on as Lightning had. So, I concluded to leave. The only reason I had gone with them was to protect Hope from Lightning's bitchiness, but I could now see that none of them needed me.<p>

So I embarked on my own, safe journey. It last for five minutes. The colorful people of Palumpolum were tense and paranoid, all thanks to the PSICOM soldiers. I had to duck behind one person to the next to avoid making eye contact with the soldiers. I felt like an idiot doing so. I guess it was too late to return to Lightning and Hope since they had snuck their way through the city in a different direction.

"Shit," I muttered to myself as hid behind a small crowd of people. I was a l'Cie, so I was a fugitive. Would I be shot on sight?

As if sensing my paranoia, two of the soldiers caught sight of me.

It was my stupid, conspicuous outfit, wasn't it?

I didn't want to cause any further scenes, so slipped through the crowds and started to run. I honestly wanted to go back and beat the shit out of my pursuers, but I didn't want to make a scene in which it would eventually result in my capture or death. If I wanted to go down, it wouldn't be without a fight, nor would it occur in a fake world.

"Stop!" one of them shouted.

Yeah. Sure.

I let out a few curses in my mind as I raced through the crowds. People, now aware of the situation, began to panic and disperse away from my speeding body. I guess none of them were going to help me, those selfish bastards.

I looked behind me to find out that more soldiers were on my tail. They had their weapons gripped tightly in their hands as they sped towards me, though none seemed to want to shoot me.

That's when I began to wonder what would happen if I did happen to get shot and die. All of this wasn't real, right? It had to be a dream, or maybe I took some drugs and I was hallucinating.

Those would be some fucking wild pills.

Whatever it was, I had to do something about it instead of continuously being manipulated into thinking I was actually in the Final Fantasy world. So, I halted to a stop and was quickly surrounded.

"Okay, you've got me. You can shoot me now," I said while panting breathlessly.

One of them laughed, his voice muffled by his white helmet. He replied, "You think we're just going to shoot you now? No, we will give you a public execution with the rest of your band of freaks."

_Well, fuck,_ I thought grimly to myself. So I was going to be captured instead of shot. There goes _that_ plan.

My instincts told me to run again, but I was keen on my death wish. If I were to die in this world, then I would surely wake up back in reality, right? My mind was already settled on that idea, so I rushed forward at one soldier and grabbed his weapon from him.

They were on me in a second. As they grabbed my arms and proceeded to yank my struggling body away, I let out a few kicks, and some of them hit a few. When I was certain that I was pissing them off enough for them to shoot me, something hard hit my head and the fake, colorful world disappeared from my vision.

I woke up, not really knowing how long I was out. I was in some holding of some sort, and both Vanille and Sazh were with me. There were two rectangular-shaped devices hanging from the ceiling. I guess it was some device to entertain the prisoners.

"Yay, you're up!" Vanille exclaimed cheerfully. She tilted her head to the side and said worriedly, "You were out for a long time."

I rubbed my pounding, aching head and groaned. "Where are we?"

Sazh was casually sitting on a dotted chair across from us with his legs crossed. "We're on the Palamecia, a giant airship. We're prisoners here, so don't get too comfortable."

"And we're not trying to escape because…?" I asked. I wanted to beat the living hell out of the guy who hit my head.

"We'll wait until the right exact moment," Sazh assured me. He appeared so laidback that I didn't bother to protest.

"Fine," I said, sitting down across from him. I crossed my arms and let out a deep sigh. "So we wait."

I wondered how Krystal and the others were doing. I hope they were in a much better situation than I was in. Whatever they were doing, it was probably a hell of a lot more exciting than sitting in boredom with two people who were still strangers to me.

"So," I began, breaking the awkward silence. "How long have you two been here?"

"A little while," Vanille perkily replied.

Hell, we could be surrounded by a horde of face-eating demons and she would still be cheerful as a puppy.

My stomach turned as I felt the ship shake a bit. I loathed flying.

Sazh chuckled, noticing my uneasiness. "Relax, you're safe."

"How would you know?" I retorted bitterly.

"I used to be an airship pilot. This ship isn't going down at any time; it's built like steel."

"Great," I sarcastically replied. My eyes darted to the mechanical door as it suddenly opened.

Two men clad in maroon armor marched in with guns drawn. One of them warned us to stay put as they surveyed the area, and then they asked us if we were causing a ruckus.

"Nope," I shrugged. "Is there a problem, officer?"

Oh, if I could get a penny for every time I've had to ask that in my lifetime.

"Hold your tongue, scum."

The two then started to walk out of our holding area. I looked over at Sazh to see if this was the "exact moment" to escape, but Sazh's eyes were focused on the visible key card in one of the guard's back pocket. Sazh then looked at me, and then back at the card. I nodded in response, and quickly snuck behind the guard and pickpocketed him. He didn't notice.

When the two guards were gone, I tossed Sazh the key card.

"Good work," Sazh praised as he eyed the key card.

"Will that get us out of here?" Vanille questioned. Her eyes were bulging out of their eye sockets as she gazed at the gray card.

"No, the mechanical lock is outside of here" Sazh responded.

"Then why the hell did I just waste my time doing that?"

"This card isn't going to free us; it's going to unlock the room where our weapons are being held," Sazh patiently told me. He smirked and put the card in one of his pockets, and then put his head back and closed his eyes. "Now we wait."

I sighed again and sat back down. Whatever Sazh was waiting for, I prayed it was worth the tedious amount of time spending in this shithole.


	22. Chapter 22: Those Who Fight Further

**Written by: sukura123 Enjoy!**

**Chapter Twenty-Two: Those Who Fight Further**

**Krystal P.O.V.**

The red dragon robot thing wouldn't let up. We attacked with everything and then some. Apparently, it was going to take a whole lot more to get this punk to die.

"Follow my lead!" Lightning shouted as she charged toward the dragon. She finally staggered him and somehow lifted him up in the air with pure non effort. Fang and Snow joined her up there beating him up.

Hope and I continued casting Blizzaga and Thundara spells. The dragon looked like it was slightly weakening, but we still had a bit longer to go. Without warning, it decided to pull a flip on us as we were all lifted in the air and fell hard onto our backs. We got back on our feet.

"We have to get it to stagger again, and then throw all our powerful attacks and magic on it." I ordered. "That might finish it off."

"Might." Lightning murmured mocking me.

I rolled my eyes. Jeez is this how she was all the time?

The dragon fired a bunch of fire balls at us as it stood still and kept moving from side to side. I blocked the attacks with my staff and casting Shell on everyone.

"Much appreciated." Fang said. She definitely got in more physical attacks than everyone else here. She was awesome.

Eventually, we all got it to stagger again, and Lightning pulled some pink crystal from inside her chest.

"Odin." She summoned as she tossed the crystal in the air. She jumped up and sliced it with her gun blade making a beautiful pink flowery symbol rush out from the inside. I stared in awe, and Hope did too wondering what it was.

A huge golden and white robot with a cape figure rose up from the center. Lighting looked like she trusted it to grab her and bring her down safely, which it did. As she brought out her weapon, he did to which was a very large sword and shield.

"Cut us a path!" She yelled. Odin followed her every command and he looked so cool doing it. I wish I could have a summon too.

I regained my focus on the battle as Lightning and Snow tossed the dragon into the air again. I turned my staff into my trusty samurai swords and went up there too. We all did, desperately trying to end the battle.

After several minutes of action packed fighting and Odin turning into a horse to help Lightning do some serious damage, it was over. The dragon got mad cause we kicked its ass and flew off somewhere.

"Aw yeah!" Snow exclaimed all happy and stuff. Hope and I were trying to catch our breath. Fang and Lightning were standing straight looking cool, as if they haven't even broken a sweat.

Afterwards, we decided to take a break somewhere nearby. Snow got us all a soda, when we need water. Oh well. We'll be at Hope's house soon.

He offered the last one to Hope but he didn't want it. He seemed to be angry or frustrated at something.

Lightning and Fang were on one side and I was with them. I barley heard Snow and Hope talking.

"Hey." I said as I approached Lighting. "Any sign of Raven on your side?" I asked, hoping for something.

"Nope. She'll come around." Fang said giving me a reassuring smile.

I nodded and thought I heard yelling close by. It was Hope and Snow.

"It's not the same thing!" Hope yelled as a bright golden energy wave circled him. It was so powerful, it sent blew us back a few feet and Snow over the balcony, but he was hanging on the edge with one hand.

Hope looked so angry as he went toward Snow and pulled out a knife. I quickly ran over there before he tried to kill Snow. Everyone except Light and Fang failed to notice the flying helicopter above us. They were trying to take it down.

I tackled Hope to the ground and got the knife from his hand and threw it somewhere else. "What the hell is wrong with—" I was cut off by a powerful explosion throwing everyone including Fang and Light off the balcony.

Snow caught Hope and Lightning, Fang and I had to fend for ourselves. We went through a few glass windows and each of us hit a pile of wooden crates and passed out.

I don't know how long I was out; I opened my eyes and looked up at the sky. Have we've been discovered. Great.

I slowly pulled myself together and stood up. Dang, my body was sore and my foot was throbbing again. Sadly, I used most if not all my magic during that dragon fight. I ignored it and went to wake up Lightning and Fang, as Snow was tending to Hope, who almost murdered him.

Lightning and Fang woke up and I helped them both onto their feet.

"Thanks." Lighting and Fang said.

"No problem guys." I smiled.

"That was some fall, at least we're alive." Fang said looking up. She found the knife Hope had and placed it in one of her side pockets for safe keeping.

Snow was ready to go but he looked as injured as the rest us. He led the way carrying an unconscious Hope on his back. He barely took a step and he grumbled in pain. He crouched down holding his side.

Hope was lifted off his back by Fang, "Don't you worry, I got Mr. Trouble maker here." She joked as she placed him on her back.

I helped Snow up as Lightning went to make sure it was safe to move, and we had to move quickly. I found the strength to support Snow, even though he tried to keep most of his off me.

I saw Lightning stumble a few times as Fang went to try and help her, but Lightning refused, but Fang made it clear that she wasn't going anywhere without help. So Lightning dealt with it.

Fang was struggling herself, but we all pressed on. Trying to make it somewhere safe and far away. We walked, scaled building ladders and finally made it to another area, it was deserted which was a good thing.

We were still following Lighting and Fang, when Snow nearly collapsed on me. He just landed next to my feet. He was in agony and needed medical treatment bad. Yet, he still continued to push onward.

I helped him get back on his feet and he leaned against a wall.

"Guys, we've got do something, or else we're all screwed!" I cried. I was worried about what would happen if we got caught. We weren't in the best condition to fight.

"We know Krsytal." Lighting said in a calm tone. I walked around thinking of something to do. Odin couldn't help us. He couldn't carry all of us, could he?

The wind picked up and I had to roll out of the way as that freakin red dragon appeared AGAIN! Snow tried to block one its attacks but was thrown back to the wall. He passed out on us. Hope hadn't stirred yet, he was placed beside Snow and Lighting, Fang and I were left to take care of this monster.


End file.
